The Rising
by TabaD
Summary: The story takes place in the actual modern era as Patrick Darst, a regular college guy, finds what appears to be a weird stone. His life will never be the same as he gets involved with a whole new and original story of conspiracy behind all known of humanity. This is a story packed with action, emotions and narrated through the protagonist's eyes. Reviews are well welcomed.
1. Today is my Birthday

The more I think about it, the more meaningless life gets. _Why am I here? Why do I have to do the things am supposed to do? As if someone will care about you in the end. What will I think at the very last moment of my existence? That I did all I ever wanted?... I can answer that question right now… I have no idea of what I want, nor do I have idea of what I will… Tomorrow is a mystery, one that I couldn't care less to solve… or plan…_

-Patrick! Get out of the fucking bathroom! We'll all be late!

-I'm taking a shower! Fuck off!

-Fucking great!

That was my brother Elvis. And when Elvis comes raging, he isn't alone, for he's actually right, we are late.

-Patrick, for God's sake! Finish already!

-I'm almost done!

-You've got 2 minutes to get out of there!

And that's my father, John… No, I've got no mother; she died right after I was born. Her parents left to outer state to only see us occasionally and my father's parents are like part of a ghosts' story to me. My father was raised by his grandfather; he never met his mother or his father. I knew nothing more than the fact that they existed.

It gets into my mind… My mother exchanged her life so I could live. That means nothing more than the responsibility on my shoulders of being someone worthy of that sacrifice. Someone my mother would be proud of… that's a nice starting point, isn't it? Funny thing is… my mother wasted her life since the very beginning. Because of the awkward simple reason that she gave her life for a pathless son; she would have better died after my big brother, Elvis, was born. He's almost finishing college… and, just to add, with amazing grades. On the other hand there's me, starting 2nd year in college and can't get out of the verge of failure and mere success. It's just that it doesn't feel that important… It's like… _is that what am I going to waste my life with? For the matter, what would I waste my life with?_

What encourages me to keep walking is the hope the fact that there's something else, something bigger, something worthy of my life, of my effort to be put on, of my whole being to give for, and along with that, worthy of my mother's sacrifice… is real. I believe that fact is real, I'd bet my whole life it is real; even more than that, I count on it… And that's why I am a pathless son; all I ever do is waiting… waiting while my mother's sacrifice gets wasted… I don´t know for what… but when it comes… I will notice it.

I finish my shower and rush to my room with the towel around my waist…

-I'm done!

I yelled. Suddenly my brother dashed into the bathroom, followed by my dad.

-You better hurry, Elvis. –he said.

He glanced at me for a moment, and gave me "that look". Yes, "that look" that I hated so much to see, yet I was well deserved of it. And I also was so used to it.

It was just another day to throw away, just like all those that have already passed.

**The Rising**

**Today is my Birthday**

(Lubbock, Texas) That's how the Darst Family sets off for the day's duties: my dad goes to work at the outskirts; he leads the meat providing industry thanks to his lands and the quality of his breeds. My brother goes to his job at the local mall. He goes to college in the afternoon. And I go on foot to my college. There's no answer to why I like that, I just do. I am so used up to the scenery that I rather listen to music than paying more attention to the environment. As well to avoid thinking; every time I am silent those "who am I" questions pop up like a virus and I go further and further on like there was no end to my inner bullshit.

But there was something different today: There were some men working on the corner I always take on my way to college and also on my way home, no matter the route I take, I always end up taking that corner.

I took a glance at what they were doing. There was a huge and deep hole on the street. You could smell the shit like it was right in front of you, and hear it flow like a ferocious river. It's disgusting, yet I've never heard shit flowing like that before, so, it's something different to notice for a change… totally worth it.

One of the workers saw how close I was and yelled…

-Back off, kid! Else you'll bathe on everyone's crap!

-Wouldn't like that, -I said smiling- hope you don't either! Have a nice day…

-You too, kid!

I continued my way to college. Sadly, there was no more interesting stuff to see; as usual.

My day was a total waste. The only thing I enjoyed was being with my friends and chill, talk about nonsense and stuff until I had to go home and have dinner.

Back on the streets, at evening, on my way home I took "the corner" and saw the workers again. The hole in the street was way bigger than before. I closed in, in case there was something different to see, and one of the workers yelled:

-You, kid, have no sense at all! Do you!? Back off, for Christ's sake!

_Sense, no, I have no sense. And else, what would happen at all? I could fall and drown in a river of shit?... pfft… like I am scared of death… Like I have something to live for at a…_

Suddenly, the ground below my feet collapsed. Everything and everywhere was suddenly sticky and stunk like hell… no, hell was surely better. Soon daylight died and it was as dark as if I had my eyes closed. I felt the liquid trying to get into my throat as I was being dragged further and further on through the river of shit. I tried to swim, but the stream was too powerful, and, on top of that, every second it was getting harder for me to keep my head over the surface.

Then I was completely submerged. I felt the shit trying to get into my mouth, my nose. It wanted to drown me, to make me part of its relentless travel through the sewers… I would become another piece of crap roaming purposeless and endlessly. Wasn't that I, already? This was just another way of doing the same thing I've been doing my whole life. It felt a good idea to just let it in and die, ending my misery in a way no one would have imagined before. But, then again, there was my hope… _What about my path? What I am? This is not me, a stinky piece of crap. There's bigger stuff for me to do in this world! Even if it is just a fantasy! I won't die a piece of crap! I'll find who I am, even if I am good or bad… better, even if it's the last thing I do!_

It was suddenly shining everywhere. I thought I was dead, but I couldn't breathe and I felt the strength of the stream on my body. I looked down, to the source of the shining and there was this thing coming up to me; it was some sort of giant gem. I was marveled by it, I just couldn't take my eyes from it.

As it came closer the more scared I was, _it's coming up! It's coming up!..._ Then it was right in front of me and I couldn't think of something else, it was just there floating nor up or down, just still, in front of me. What else could I do? Well, I grabbed it. As soon as I did, it stopped shining, yet I didn't let it go.

_This is amazing! I found this weird thing in the depth of the sewers! What is it? The Shit of Destiny? Will it shine again? What else does it do?..._ Those and more questions ran through my mind with only one way to answer them: not… dying… here.

The stone had the diameter of an American football ball, maybe a little bit thicker, and it was slightly longer. I held the gem under my arm and swam with all my might towards the surface. I used my free arm and my legs as hard as I have never ever swam before. Even though I was tired and my muscles hurt a lot, I managed to get myself to the surface. I exhaled and took the deepest breathe I have ever taken. I cleared my mind for my next step to survive.

I swam sideward to the stream; I was aware that there was some sort of sidewalks at the sides; if I could reach one, that'd be my ultimate salvation.

The gem almost slipped off a few times, but I wasn't going to let it go, not even if I myself died down there. That gem, stone, whatever it was, was the most amazing thing I've ever seen. If I was going to get out of there, I was going to do it with that stone in my backpack.

I couldn't see a thing, but I didn't stop swimming as hard as I could, until I hit my head with a wall. It hurt a lot, yet it was a victory, I grabbed the edge with my free hand and first thing I did was securing the stone out of the shit river, then I pulled myself up afterwards. It felt so good to be on land, though I wasn't safe yet, I still had to make my way back to the hole and get the hell out of there.

I sat cross-legged on the floor and put the stone between my legs, so it wouldn't roll anywhere. I took my backpack off and made some space for the gem and put it in. Closing my backpack and having it strapped at my back was so relieving; _finally that thing is safe! Now I won't have to worry about it and just think on going forward…_

As I couldn't see anything, I didn't stood up in fear of tripping and falling again to the shit river; so I just crawled forward, to the other way of the river. I kept going on and on for unrecognizable time. Just to think how fast that stream was blew my mind when trying to figure out how far I got. But I didn't stop, I kept going and going, I had to get out of there, but not for me, if it was at least something near being for me, I wouldn't have fallen in there in the first place. I had to get out of there for the gemstone. _That's how am going to call it!_

I never had something to live for; maybe that's why I felt so united to this gemstone. Or maybe it was because of how it appeared for me: Right when I was facing certain doom, and not only that, right when I found a true life-goal… Self-discovery.

I was getting tired, my knees hurt like I was crawling on a nail covered floor. But I never stopped. I knew that, sooner or later, it will be worth the efforts. And it did; I heard some voices coming from the distance. And I replied.

-I'm over here!

It appears that the sewers had some curves, because I didn't saw their flashlights until they were a few meters away. They ran towards me and pulled me up to my feet. It was a group of 3 men. I couldn't be gladder to see them.

-Do you have any injuries?...

-Are you OK?

They asked while helping me get on my feet, one of them positioned himself to carry me by my arm. To which I answered…

-I'm OK… I just wished there was some soap around…

They laughed a bit.

-You are one lucky dude and a tough one indeed. We were expecting to find a corpse. You know what the probabilities of…

-Get off me!

One of them tried to take my backpack off me. The one that was talking said…

-What's wrong?

-My backpack, I'll carry it… it saved my life.

-Alright. –said the one that tried to take it.

Then the first one stated…

-Well, let's get out of here.

So we did, we walked our way to the hole, that was the closest exit from there. On the way I told them how I was almost drowned by the stream and its strength and how I swam to the side to find the sidewalk; _pretty genius, right?_ I kept for myself everything related to the gemstone… everything, even its bare existence.

We didn't last a minute on the street; they took me to the Hygienic Stuff Related Facility, that's how I knew it. It was provided with a special shower capable of removing any kind of hazardous material, such as human crap and every other disgusting content the sewer river may have got.

I was taken to the shower and told to get naked… That wasn't something I felt comfortable with… but… I guess… it had to be done… The shower was gigantic compared to regular showers; it could fit 10 people inside. I pushed my clothes and shoes to a side after I put my important belongings such as wallet, house keys and cellphone in one of the backpack's outer pockets. Suddenly someone came wearing a HazMat (Hazardous Materials) suit, took the clothes and reached for my backpack that was on the floor. I was quick enough to stop him from taking the backpack.

-I want to deal with it myself, thank you.

He looked at me with confusion. Then he just left with only my clothes and shoes. _I guess he hasn't got much time to waste… or maybe he just doesn't give a fuck… _Two men wearing HazMat suits came in, holding gigantic brushes. They saw the backpack on the floor. One of them turned to the other…

-Call Frank back, he forgot something…

-He didn't, (I said) I told him to leave the backpack here.

-We cannot proceed, it is protocol…

-I've got important notes there and I can assure you the backpack is hermetic, there's nothing in it to be cleaned.

-Look, kid…

-No! You look, sir! With all due respect, I am not going to give up an entire semester of notes and important data just because it "may be dangerous"! I have put them in an expensive hermetic backpack so they are protected from rain, dirt or mud, and even shit-rafting!

-Ok, ok shut it there. Let's just finish this.

A weird liquid began to rain in the whole room as one of them brushed me with the gigantic brush while the other one cleaned my backpack. I kept keen eye on the backpack in case they tried to open it. In the meantime I reflexed… _What the hell did I just do? I am not that assertive… or at least I thought I wasn't… That's because I never had something to stand up for. This is a second opportunity, a chance to do things the right way. I'm going to make you proud mom, I'm going to become worthy of your sacrifice!_

Once clean, both I and my backpack were taken out of the shower. There, a guy holding a towel and a bag greeted me.

-Here, -He said handing me the towel- get yourself dry. Your clothes and shoes were burnt. You'll put this on. –he said signaling at the plastic bag he was holding with his other hand.

Once ready, I returned the towel and was handed the bag. I changed up and in the second I was ready the guy said…

-Follow me.

So I did.

I was taken through a long hallway. There were many doors at the sides, some decorative plants and a lot of paintings, none of them similar to the one before each. We ended up stopping in front of an office. The guy accompanying me opened the door and stayed behind as I entered. He closed the door and leaved me alone with the man sitting behind a huge desk. He was just staring at me with serious eyes. _Is he expecting me to do something?_ I didn't even take my backpack off, I just…

-Uhmm… Hi?

In a very low tone and with an amazing graveness he uttered…

-Don't play fool or innocent on me. Save us both that ingenuity.

_What is this guy talking about? Who does he think I am?_

-I… I'm not following, sir…

-You threw yourself on purpose to the sewers…

_What!?_

-huh?

-Yes… otherwise, why getting so close to the border? **Twice**, knowing the risks of falling off?

-I was just curious.

-I think the first thing I told you was to quit playing innocent…

-But I am…

-I'm not known for being patient, just to warn you, kid. You did this for the money, didn't you? I bet you are still living with your parents; maybe they even motivated you to do it, right? To then be able of suing us? May be?

_This guy is fucking going too far! Disrespecting me… disrespecting my family! Still, I must play safe, I'm starting over with my life, I don't need this shit…_

-Give me your father's phone number…

-I don't think he might be able of answering at this hour.

-Just give me the number…

_I must at least try something…_

-Alright, you win, my father isn't involved, I swear; it's just me, call whoever you want, but, please, let's fix this without getting my dad to know, he would kill me!

-Literally?

-Yes…

He laughed a bit then got serious before speaking.

-You aren't leaving this office until I have a word with your father.

I sighted heavily… _Here it goes…_

-(phone number)…

_Let's see how you like calling __**my**__ dead phone!_

-He isn't answering, assuming you gave me your father's number… Well… you seem to be already a total loser; actually thinking such a stupid plan would work… This is what am going to do with you, just because the pity I feel for you is almost turning into anger, you'll leave my office right at the moment I finish talking, without saying a word, and get out of my facility to never come back again, also knowing that this very conversation, in which you confess everything, is being recorded, just in case you decide to go any further.

_I can't believe it worked! I'm going out of here clean! Fuck yeah!_

After waiting a few moments, I decide that those were the last words he was referring to. I turned around slowly and advanced towards the door. Opened it and went to the hallway. _Finally, some movement! My legs are killing me for just standing around so long… _There, sitting on a bench was the guy who brought me to the office. I didn't say a word, neither did he. He just escorted me outside.

Once outside, I started walking without looking back. I didn't think of anything, not a single idea jumped in my mind, just total blankness. Without noticing the passing of time, I arrived home. _Weird, I didn't take the corner I always take when coming home… Well, after this, I won't be surprised if I avoid it like the plague!_

I took my house keys out of the backpack and opened the door. I found dad walking from one side to another trying to make a phone call.

_He's trying to call me for sure. It's been hours after my usual arriving time._

-Uhmm… dad?

-Patrick! Thank God you are ok! where the hell have you been? I had your brother looking for you for hours on your college, hours! And I couldn't even reach you by phone! What do you think I bought you a phone for!? You better have a good explanation for this…

-There's an explanation…

Then I told everything to him, everything but the gemstone. I told him even the little detail of making the man in the office call my phone instead of his.

-… I gave the guy a wrong number because I didn't wanted you to hear such accusations he was making on me… I just wanted to quit disappointing you…

I was at the verge of braking… Luckily, my father stopped me before I did.

-… You aren't mad at me… are you?

He sighed, then answered:

-No, I'm not… We both had bad days, yours worse than mine, as a matter of fact. If that's all that happened, I'm glad you are ok. And if they are going to leave this matter on the mud, then so will we, no point messing with the unnecessary. I hope you learned something from this.

I was surely a disappointment for my dad, but at least he knew I wouldn't be capable of doing something he would be ashamed of.

_Should I tell him about the gemstone? But, what if it belongs to someone and he makes me return it? Fuck that! That thing shone and floated up to where I was! That wasn't natural, so natural laws don't apply and even less human's. _

Dad patted my shoulder and ended…

-There's some dinner, serve yourself; I'm going to organize some data.

-See you later dad, thanks for your understanding.

-What else am I here for, son…

As he said that, he left to his office. _My brother is studying; I guess I have an opportunity here to deal with the gemstone. _I went to the laundry room and locked the door, then slowly opened the backpack. _For fuck's sake! This thing smelled way better down in the sewers! I better get done with this…_

I looked around and picked everything that had something to do with eliminating odors and germs. After lots of brushing and many improvised chemical mixes, I finally got the shit odor from the gemstone. Happy for my success, I stood still for a moment just to admire the weird rock. It had a beautiful dark-red wine-like color.

_Now, to find a hiding place…_

My best option was somewhere in my bedroom. Dad never comes to my bedroom, plus I didn't have to worry about housemaid, we didn't have any. That's because the three of us had a common politic: Everyone deals with its own shit, in general terms and situations. And those pesky house shores were arranged between my brother and me.

I put the gemstone in the top part of my closet. No one had to know about it, it was my treasure, my Luck Amulet. With that solved I felt sudden clarity; I have never felt so clear, so motivated, and so free. I had a quick dinner followed by a long renewing shower. _Man, this is a shower… not like that disinfection shower; those guys brushing the shit out of me… ughh, that felt like a violation._ After that, I went to sleep.

All this took place at the beginning of October, exactly two months before Christmas vacations. In that time, I took extra assignments, studied harder, participated more in class… I did everything I could to gain as many points as possible. I turned from an unproductive piece of nothing to a working successful machine, the term "free time" didn't existed for me at all; I only rested when I was truly exhausted. My last resources of points were the final exams. I had never studied as hard as I did for these tests.

Finally done with this semester, I made it to the Christmas vacations. My grades will be shown in a few days, but I wasn't thinking about that; I ended the semester with an ear-to-ear smile. Though I could fail at one or two classes, what made me smile was the fact that I gave this whole months everything I could. And I was planning to do as well with the coming semesters.

_Fuck, these last months were a survival experience. At least I am on vacations now. Tomorrow is the first day of vacations, that only means… sweet renewing long sleep tonight._


	2. Define Reality

**Define Reality**

That night, I woke up to nothing. _What the hell… _I reached for my watch that was on a small table next to my bed. After stumbling with a lot of stuff, I found it and looked at the hour.

_3 am? What the hell? _

I looked around, searching for something to be out of place, but everything was quiet and still, not a single sound could be heard, out of regular night sounds, of course… _Well, I guess I was just uncomfortable; back to sleep…_

Suddenly something started to make a lot of sound. Something was cracking and squeaking like there was no tomorrow. _Huh?... it comes from the upper part of my closet… may it be the gemstone? No way, that's just a stone… oh, yeah, coming from someone who saw it shine and float up from the depth of the sewers… hopefully it's just a rat or something, and maybe it's trying to bite the gemstone…_

I slowly got up from my comfortable bed. _Why not any other night? Why today? _(Long sigh)_. _When I was finally up, I picked up my baseball bat. _Tonight, blood will be spilled._ I opened the door and quickly moved away; if there was a rat, I wouldn't want it to jump right to my face, besides, I had to have the element of surprise at the moment of hitting it with the bat.

But nothing happened, the sounds kept going on. It was like there was nothing else with the gemstone. The idea got up again. _Is it the gemstone what's making the sounds? It isn't that hardly to be, I mean, that thing shone and floated like it was alive… so… _Without thinking it any further, I closed the room's door and locked it, put the bat on my bed and reached for the gemstone. When I got it out, I put it on the bed and examined it in the darkness, much I wasn't going to find, though.

I got my head closer and closer; slowly, but at a steady pace. Suddenly, almost when I was touching it with my right ear, I heard a crack and something touched my ear. _What the fuck!? What the… How? What in the…!_

I was really scared at the moment. _It's a fucking egg! That thing is a fucking egg! _I grabbed the bat and got ready for everything. The egg kept cracking up for a few moments later and I was every second closer to know what was being born on my bed. Then it got out;_ it's some sort of lizard…_. It looked like a shadow on my bed; the moonlight wasn't reflecting very well from it, which meant it had a dark color. It was looking around searching for nothing, just looking around. Then it fixed its eyes on me and never took them away. I felt like getting closer… _Maybe it is friendly… _So I did. I put the bat on the floor carefully, to avoid making noises. I extended my right hand towards it and crouched enough for it to be at higher level, that way I wouldn't have an intimidating appearance.

And I started getting closer. Suddenly it looked back and scratched its back; it had a long neck to be a lizard_… what the hell is that thing? _Then two weird things popped out from his sides. _Son of a fuck! _I jumped backwards and landed on the floor, panting, luckily a meter away from the closet. I crawled back until I felt the closet at my back. The thing stretched what appeared to be a pair of wings. I was as horrified as I was amazed, I couldn't believe what I had in front of me. _It… that thing is a dragon… There's a goddamned dragon in my room_… It closed its wings, squeaked from moment to moment, roaming on my bed, suddenly jumping and diving playfully on the blankets. Then it stopped and looked again to me. Seeing those little eyes fixed on me gave me goose bumps.

It dived down to the floor and slowly walked to me. The only thing that kept me from smashing it with my baseball bat was that it never hissed. It never acted like menaced nor showed any hostility, it's like it felt home. As it got closer to me, the more I felt like getting forward as well, _Fuck this shit! _I leaned forward and extended my right arm towards the dragon.

It smelled the tip of my fingers when they were just a few centimeters away from making contact. My fingers were shaking because of the idea of it biting them off, they were half opened. I composed myself and extended them, but, at the same time, the dragon leaned forward. Right before I could react, I touched the tip of its mouth.

I have never ever felt such pain so big. It flowed from the tip of my fingers to the whole rest of my body and immobilized me. I wasn't able to even scream. I ended up there, leaning on the closet, barely breathing and without feeling any part of my body. I saw the dragon walk towards me; it climbed up to my lap and rested.

_So, this is going to be it. This is my finale. I'm going to be eaten by a baby dragon; luckily it will wait for me to die instead of eating me while I can still see it resting on my lap…_

And I lost consciousness.

I woke up, slowly opened my eyes. _I just had the weirdest dream ever… there was a dragon and it killed me… _To my surprise, I was leaning against the closet. _Weird… this is where the dream ended; I guess it was pretty realist. _I stretched my arms and legs, yawned and prepared to get up, but I felt something on my lap, and it moved…_ What is this?_ _Oh no! Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck… _I began to shake of fear like making an earthquake to the dragon; _why is this happening!?_ It woke up, confused, and looked around. When it realized it was me who was shaking; got off me by my left side, pressed itself against my left leg, curled up and continued sleeping.

_How much time passed? it is still dark. There's no doubt this is reality. Why didn't the dragon began eating me? It's like it ain't a menace after all… What was that pain then? It would be logic if it was some sort of venom or a defense, but, the dragon didn't hissed; he acted completely comfortable, like he didn't mind my presence until the moment it decided to come towards me…_

And I kept going on and on and on like I have never done. It was like my mind had no limits. There was a point where I couldn't philosophe further on, but now, I broke that limit.

I reached three conclusions: One… the dragon wasn't a threat; otherwise, I would still be immobilized or dead, yet I was all ok. Two… That dragon did something to me, something that was, somehow, supposed to happen, something that I will keep keen eye on and will get to the bottom of. Three… I will keep the dragon; just like with the gemsto… egg; it was my most valuable belonging, my treasure, now that it is gone and I have a dragon in exchange, it is my duty to raise it.

I stopped shaking during the travel in my thoughts. I was relaxed, comfortable… and sleepy. I needed to get back to my bed. I looked at the dragon; I could feel it's breathing against my leg, so peaceful, so quiet. After a few moments, I decided to wake it up, even though I'd hate to.

I stretched my left arm towards it… _oooooooh maaaaaannn… what if it happens again?..._ My fingertips were just a few centimeters away from the dragon's back. _What if that only happens with the dragon's face? That makes sense… I hope so… The whole thing of a dragon in my room doesn't make sense!... Fuck this shit!_

I softly patted the dragon in the back. He raised its head and looked at me. Suddenly I felt joyful and happy like I could get up and sing out loud my favorite song, or go to dad's room and give him a hug for no single reason. I was confused about this weird feeling, and that prevented me from noticing the dragon pressing the side of his head against my hand like a cat. When I saw it… _Oh no! _But then… I felt nothing… I was touching the dragon's face and it didn't hurt.

The dragon stopped, and then looked at me. It walked forward to me and climbed its front claws on my waist. It was standing like a little kid waiting for something to happen. Suddenly, I felt expectative; I kept looking at the dragon like waiting for it to do something, yet my mind was somewhere else. _Why am I feeling this way? I wasn't expectative right before?... This is the dragon's expectative! No, it cannot be… that's way beyond bizarre! But, what's the definition of bizarre tonight? That a weird stone shone under a river of crap? That it turned out to be an egg? And that the egg turned to be a dragon egg? Is having a dragon in my bedroom, bizarre? All those things are real! From now on, the word bizarre won't mean shit to me._

In the end, I decided to just roll with it. _I can feel the dragon's mind, end of story… on second thought, that could explain the pain, we made some kind of contact!_ I touched the dragon's face again and pet its head and neck for a while like it was some kind of strange little dog. _Now I can touch the dragon's face without worry. That first contact was the starting point of something, and by the looks of it, it's big. I am connected with this dragon, it's like our minds are one. It will be a challenge to raise it, one that I gladly accept. In a way, this has something to do with finding who I am… and I will go with it no matter what. I will find who I am no matter the challenges, the obstacles in my way! But now… I want to sleep. If I leave my door locked, nor dad or Elvis will see the dragon while they are here getting ready for work. Once they leave, I'll have an entire morning, until they arrive for lunch, to plan out how I will raise this dragon._

I gently pushed the dragon away and stood up. The dragon circled around my feet like it wanted to play or something. _I get you are pretty energetic, little hatchling. Still, I have to sleep._ It then stopped and looked at me, like confused. _What the fuck just happened? Did it hear me? The connection goes both ways, by the looks of it._

I proceeded to go to my bed. It was so relieving to finally lie down on my soft comfy bed. I rolled under the blankets and kicked off the pieces of egg, then I forgot about everything. But, right before I could sleep, the dragon began squeaking and making sounds. I opened my eyes and saw it trying to climb to the bed. _Mmmmm…_ suddenly I heard a scratch, _oh shit, no! stop that! _It just looked at me like confused for a moment, then continued scratching. I saw a group of deep scratches on the mattress. _You came to this world ready for everything, damn you are sharp. I don't believe what I am about to do. _I leaned and picked up the dragon to the bed. Once I put it down, it began to jump and dive into the blankets. On the other hand, I leaned back and got ready to sleep. Just a moment later, the dragon stopped playing and curled up by my side. I pet it one last time. _Rest well… dragon. I have to get you a name. But that can wait until tomorrow._

Without noticing, I began wondering. _What if there are more dragons out there? It would be awesome to see the sky filled up with dragons flying to the horizon…_ Then I pictured that in my mind. Suddenly I felt relaxed, way more than home. I was in the best place of the world. _This is clearly the dragon's mind… that's why it was confused when I thought of words; I must communicate with it via images, feelings… Will it get to understand words in the future?_

That thought, I fell asleep.

When I woke up, dad and Elvis were still getting ready, I could hear them. _Why did I wake up so early?_ Then I saw the dragon, looking at me while standing right in front of my face, waving its tail from one side to the other and on. It pushed his head against my face. _Ok, ok, am awake…_ I waited for the sounds to calm. Once they did, I checked I was totally home alone and got the dragon out of my room.

First thing I did was getting us some breakfast. _You are a reptile; your claws and fangs tell me you are a carnivore, so, chicken for you. _I prepared some milk and cereal for me. I seated at the table while the dragon tore apart some pieces of chicken on the floor. In a regular situation, I would have turned on the TV and watched something while eating, but now, I had important stuff to wonder and plan, and there was no time to waste. _My pet is having a manlier breakfast than me… unbelievable._

I finished earlier than the dragon and proceeded to just look at it eat. Its scales had the same color of the egg, it was intimidatingly beautiful. _I really need to give you a name, but, how can I if I don't know whether you are male or female? Well, I guess we'll know at a given time. Let's get to what's important now: How will I raise you… You are going to need food; dad and Elvis could notice the lack of food, even if it's slight. You are going to need exercise; I see you as a strong, energetic dragon in the future, and that can only be accomplished with daily training and playing. I could just hide you when dad or Elvis come to the backyard, yet they could come very suddenly and surprise us. You'll need space, for you'll grow for sure; sooner or later my room won't be enough. You'll also need… oh forget it, there's no way I'm going very far with this on my own. I'll need help with this. Should I tell dad? How will he take the fact that I hid such thing, even when it was just a stone? Will Elvis accept you? I mean, the ruler is dad, but Elvis is the favorite son…_

The dragon finished eating; only the big bones got left behind. I picked the bones and went to the kitchen, trashed them and poured some water in an old plastic bowl, then put it on the floor. The dragon began drinking water. And I just looked at it as long as it was drinking. I stopped worrying, I cleared my mind and relaxed, also I drank a glass of water myself. That was a small interval of quietness. It did me well.

The dragon followed me to the living room; where I sat on the couch feeling anxious again. _There's got to be a solution for this problem… Letting dad surprise me with this would get me worse results than telling him myself. And both cases have their risks. I could try keeping it secret, plan something well and methodic, even if I manage to get out with it, I will be distracted from my studies and tense about getting caught, sleeping with one eye open and wouldn't get to enjoy the experience at all. While telling dad, the only risk is that he wouldn't accept this, and that would be known at the instant; I would be able to deal with it trying to talk, using reason or something, or he would let me keep the dragon; give me some responsibility, a long talk and then carry on, with a little bit more of luck he would even support me and advise; not that I expect him to know something about dragons (like if someone alive would), but any help would be useful._ I gave it a long thought. In the meanwhile I looked for a tennis ball and gave it to the dragon. That kept it entertained while I was thinking.

After around an hour of deep reasoning, I got to a conclusion. _You know what? I'm going to tell dad about this. I will take the chance for all the advantages that could mean dad's support. As for dad's answer, whether it's yes or no, I will stick with you till the end._ Getting to an answer felt so comforting, still, the doubt was strong in my mind. A few times I thought of reconsidering everything, but I was too busy playing with the dragon to proceed.

It scratched my hands in various places. _I guess I'll have to be more careful with… what the hell? _I saw a big long mark on my right palm; it was like some kind of scar. _How did I get this? _Then, only one thing crossed my mind. _Will it be related to the first contact thing? _I touched it with my other hand and I didn't felt a thing; my hand was all ok and I decided not to waste more time on that. I put on my sport gloves and kept playing.

_You are a lot like me, dragon. Energetic, playful, you like to play rough; you are scratching the gloves too… more than blood runs through our veins, what would it be? Hehe… I won't get anything that way… Fury, you are dark, strong, dangerous, yet not evil… heeey that could be a good name; Fury… No… it doesn't sound very well… Furia, mmm… in Spanish is a lot better… Only bad thing is that it sounds like a female name. Good enough, got fifty percent of possibilities covered!_

Time passed really fast. The dragon and I were resting on the couch, watching tv, when dad arrived. I managed to hear him in time and locked the dragon in my room. _What about the weird scar? I could stay with only one glove, but he would surely ask about it… I'll just keep my palm off his sight._

I went to the front door and opened it for him.

-Hey dad, how was your day?

-The usual, today just send cargo to our customers from outer state; lots of paper work…

-I'm on vacations now, I could… I don't know, help with something…

-Glad you say so, still, you earned these vacations, for once, and I hope to see it again, I saw you really into your studies this last semester. Don't worry about the grades; you really did your best this time.

-Thanks dad… mmm… I kind of have something to talk out with you.

-Is it serious?

-Pfft, no… just a whim I've got…

-Then it can wait, we'll talk about it while having lunch.

-Ok then.

I went to my room and seated on the border of the bed. The dragon came by and put its front claws on the border of the bed and tried to climb it. I picked it up, then it seated next to me. _This is the moment we've been waiting for. _I thought of how would be the best way to approach dad. Once I heard him calling me from the dining room, I went outside, leaving the dragon again in my room.

-Dad, I need to tell you something about that day I fell into the sewers.

-I thought we had solved that already, well, you did.

He said taking some food to his mouth.

-No, it isn't about the facility; it's about before when I was swimming in…

With his mouth full, he interrupted me.

-For God's sake, Patrick…

-Sorry, sorry… well, when I was…

-Down there, I get it. Cut to the chase, at this pace I'm going to finish my food without even knowing what this is about.

-I found something… some sort of stone.

-Do you still have it?

-It's gone, but…

-What did you do with it?

-I didn't do anything to it. Look, can I tell the event's as they happen?

He laughed slightly.

-I'm just messing with you.

-Well… I brought it here and hid it in my closet. I embraced it as some kind of treasure; I didn't talk to anybody about it, not even the hygiene facility guys. After that, I decided to do always my best.

-I see… Can I… oh, right, is gone… continue. Wait, what size was that stone?

-It was a little bit bigger than an American football ball.

-That's a big one. It wasn't very heavy, was it? Otherwise you would have had to get to the bottom of the sewers.

-It wasn't very heavy, though how I found it was trickier than that. When I was almost drowning, actually when I decided not to die there, it shone and floated to where I was… it was like…

-Wait, you lost me there, it… shone? And you saw it through all the… Was it some sewer devise?

-Better, an egg.

-Are you ok, son? Elvis told me he heard weird sounds coming from your room last night. How can be an egg that big? Without mentioning the shining…

-Well… I'll continue… I brought it home, cleaned it, and hid it until last night.

-What happened last night? It's getting interesting… and freakish…

-It cracked open.

-Well, what was the egg of, then?

I kind of just whispered.

-A dragon's…

-What?

-A dragon's…

-Speak up, can't understand what you're…

And I spoke up.

-A dragon's egg it was.

-So, let me get this straight… You are telling me that some kind of stone shone and floated up to you in the middle of a river of excrement, you brought it home, and after 2 months of inactivity, it turned out to be a dragon's egg that, to make it better, cracked up last night. This means there's a dragon somewhere in the house…

-In my room actually.

-Son, please, stop it there… Do you think you could use some professional help? We can afford it…

I went to my room and opened the door, then went back to the dinning, the dragon following me.

-What the…!? -He said jumping out of the chair as the dragon got into his sight.

-We both might need professional help.

-What… the… hell…

He stared at the dragon for a moment. It was just waving its tail looking at dad.

-I want to keep it.

He got a little startled with my sudden comment so I repeated as he didn't seem to have understood me.

-I want to keep it… like a pet.

-No way, Patrick…

This was sort of what I was expecting; he didn't catch me off guard. _Let the battle commence!_

-What do you mean by no way? It isn't dangerous, I can assure you.

-It's a damned… dragon, Patrick! There's no way to know that, this shouldn't be happening in the first place!

-Why? Cause it's a dragon?

-No! Because dragon's aren't real!

-It's standing in front of you, dad, and so am I, by that statement you are saying I am not real either.

-Watch your mouth, Patrick…

-Sorry… still, do you think I accepted it quickly? I got scared like hell when it first appeared, but after I gave it an opportunity, things went well…

-Look, Patrick… What do you plan to do with it when it grows? How will you control it? What do you know about this?

-Nothing… but, we can work it out.

-Get rid of that thing, as simple as that…

-But anyone who finds it will kill it for being weird! Or worse, sell it to laboratories! Nothing comes back alive after turning to Science's lab rat!

-Look son…

_Time to wield the big guns…_

-No! You look, dad! For once in my life I feel that I'm doing something! That I'm not wasting my time, my existence! This is what I want to do! I thought you remembered your grandfather's last words…

He told me his grandfather's last words long before, they were very meaningful and amazingly fit for a situation like this. "Always follow your heart, John, for it will take you to amazing places and situations, such your mind will try to avoid. And when you see someone following his or hers; silly, unusual and even unreal their hearts would seem to be, never go against them… help them instead."

He just stood still, silently. I was afraid I triggered some horrible memory.

-Dad, I'm sorry. I'll take it to my room and we'll talk alone, ok?

-No, son, don't be sorry. I remembered something about my grandfather… When I was a kid, he told me a story that started just like this one: with a shining stone. That's why I kind of felt like I've heard this before. Anyway, he told me many stories about his pet dragon like they were some kind of child tales, to entertain his only grandson. I get the feeling now that… those stories…

-What happened to his dragon? How did the stories ended?

-He never told me the end… And even if he did, I don't remember any of them.

-Well… can I keep it then?

He sighed heavily, like he was defeated.

-You did that effort this last semester because of the stone didn't you?

-As I said…

His eyes looked at me, then at the dragon, then at many random directions like he was processing what just had happened. Then, he fixed his eyes on mine and said with a solid tone…

-Well, keep the dragon; at least it brings out something good in you… You'll deal with all of its necessities, yet if you need something, a hand, you can tell me. You will teach it to behave; because the very first sign of risk I get to see in this decision will be solved with only one measure. You heard me, Patrick.

-I assume the responsibility dad…

And I jumped and hugged him the hardest I could.

-Let me breathe, son!

-Sorry, dad... thanks, you won't regret this!

I hugged him again, but softer.

-Does it have a name?

-If it's female, Furia. Don't know how to call it if it's male…

-Well, you'll find a good name, once you discover what gender it is…

-Thanks dad…


	3. True Happiness doesn't last Forever

**True Happiness doesn't last Forever**

My life was finally set. Also the dragon's gender; _To the internet!..._ After some investigation on reptiles and attention to the dragon's anatomy; I managed to determine it was a female. I played with her every day; I hardly went out of home. I taught her some rules and house standards. Not even I could believe how well this was going. I fed her with pieces of chicken, but sometimes, like once a week, I took a live chicken from father's lands and brought it home for her. My father didn't like very much to see it happening, but Elvis and me; we could have used some pop-corn. The idea was with this to avoid rusting the dragon's instincts.

She grew amazingly fast; at the third week after her birth she could double her birthing size. She had the size of a medium sized dog. She learned to fly; she was frantic about using her wings. I taught her to fly only at night, that way whoever looked up to the dark sky wouldn't see her. At fourth week, she was a monster; her shoulders almost matched with my waist, and her wings were longer than our living room, when opened. She was too big for our house; she required much more food. It was time to send her to dad's lands.

He was the one who prompted the idea. _I know this has to be done… but, still, what if dad's land keeper talks?_ That weekend before college started, a Sunday morning exactly, dad and I put Furia in the double cabined truck's back seat, covered her with a blanket and headed to the outskirts. Elvis didn't come, for he had an important assignment to accomplish for his job. On the way we talked the matter out.

-Dad, are you sure Mr. Flynn is to trust about this?

-You know Mr. Flynn…

-Yeah, I do… I just wanted to make sure.

-Don't worry, Patrick. He's been my land keeper since these lands were given to me by your mother's father. Besides, he has hidden worse stuff than a silly dragon…

-I really doubt it…

-Yes son, to turn these lands to what they are now, I had to do deep shit, and Mr. Flynn was by my side the whole way. Why do you think he's like my associate? He's the one and only that knows these lands the same way I do.

-Well, if you say so, then it is.

Dad told me he didn't mind the dragon hunting freely. Still, it was greatly important teaching it to hunt only in our lands, and flying only at night. That's why Mr. Flynn was waiting for us already in our country house; he would accompany us walking all the lands' borders.

When we were almost arriving, dad spoke.

-I already had a word with Mr. Flynn about this, so, when we arrive, feel free to release Furia. I want to see Mr. Flynn's face.

There was Mr. Flynn at the porch, waiting for us. Dad parked the truck and we got out. As we approached, Mr. Flynn greeted us.

-Hey there, John!

-How are you doing, Cedric? How's the family?

-Great, great! The kids are just messing around at home; can't wait for this school year to start!

-Same waters I seem to be swimming.

They both laughed slightly and hugged each other. In a moment they finished and I approached Mr. Flynn.

-Hi, Mr. Flynn.

I said offering my hand. He stretched it and said…

-Patrick! How did the chickens ended?

-Surely delicious, I bet…

-What do you mean by that?

Dad then intervened.

-What are you waiting for, Patrick?

-Right.

I went to the truck and opened the door.

Furia stepped outside vigorously and shacked off the blanket, then stretched her neck and every of her limbs. Yawned and showed off her fangs.

-In the name of... what in damnation is that thing!

-Nothing more than what I told you; your new land keeping partner. You should have seen your face!

-Do you want me dead by heartache, crazy bastard! I thought you were talking about a person! Where did you get that thing from, anyway?

-It's a long story.

_I'll let dad do the talk, Mr. Flynn is now in shock_. I called Furia and she followed me. The two of us started the walk earlier while dad explained everything to Mr. Flynn.

From a moment to another I found myself talking and picturing to her about the lands, the game she would find here and some instructions… On the other hand she was all playful the whole way, dashing for a second from one point to the other, climbing some of the big trees to then dive down… experimenting this new environment she was being brought to. I knew the lands well enough to make the rout by myself, so I played with her the whole way.

At a steady pace, it took us the whole morning to round the land, luckily I was prepared. I brought with me a back pack filled with food and water; enough for me and Furia to have a midmorning snack.

Once we made it to where we started, I called dad with my new phone and told him we were ready. He was walking with Mr. Flynn, still talking. He told me to wait for them at the house, or at least not very far; it was getting late for lunch. We were going to have lunch there. So I just sat and relaxed against a tree, while Furia laid down by my side. Half an hour later, dad and Mr. Flynn arrived.

We had lunch. Not much for talk besides the matter of a dragon roaming freely in my father's lands. Yet, we mixed topics from one moment to another. In the meantime, Furia killed and ate a goat that was already tied down nearby, just waiting for its hour.

-That thing is true to be fierce…

Said Mr. Flynn, while looking at Furia rip off a piece of meat. Quickly pointing at me with the knife he was eating with, dad said…

-This one's fault. You should have seen how he raised her. I told you, lots of hours of playing, training to then rest and do it again, and the chickens he came to pick were for her, so her instincts wouldn't be lost with domestication.

- She's a charming killing machine, as it looks.

-Don't worry, soon you'll feel safer with Furia around.

-I guess that is true, John…

He glanced at me and spoke…

-Where did you get that name, Furia?

-It means "fury" in Spanish.

-Mmmm… the name of a feeling, pretty deep. And it suits her well.

I chuckled, then said…

-Thanks, it just popped up…

We finished our food, rested up and started getting ready to go. I didn't feel the passing time, I remembered all Furia and I walked and played the whole morning, but it felt like suddenly having to say goodbye, at least until next weekend that I could come and visit. After I goodbye hugged her, I got in the truck and all the way I stared at her until I lost her in the distance. Home felt so empty without Furia.

On Sunday night, while preparing the stuff I would need on Monday, I thought of the scar._ What am I going to do with this? What if someone else knows about this, about dragons and what they are related to? I haven't seen anyone with a scar like this one… I better keep this for myself, the least I call attention, the better._ I decided to wear my right sports glove while I was in college… the excuse: _I had an acid accident and now my hand is oversensitive, end of story. _That decided, I finished preparing stuff and went to bed.


	4. One Weekend at a Time

**One Weekend at a Time**

That week was nice, pretty simple; just six days waiting for Sunday to come, so I could be able to go to my father's lands. The only times I wasn't thinking about Furia, were those when I was talking with my friends, and still I got distracted from the conversations many times. And speaking about many times, I had to tell the "acid accident" story like a thousand times. I was asked about my right sports glove everywhere, not only my friends and knowns; even people I have ever seen asked me about it. Luckily the story was simple and easy to tell. There was one of my friends that asked me for a lot of details. _Where is this guy trying to get?_

When finally Sunday arrived, I couldn't hold my joy. First hour in the morning I was like taking the truck and going solo to visit Furia. Still, I had to get a hold of myself, dad wanted to go. Elvis wouldn't see her for a long time, for he had sailed to outer state for an internship. I felt every second of the trip, every meter we passed was like a small victory that brought us closer to our destiny.

Once arrived, we met Mr. Flynn at the house. We greeted each other, then I asked about Furia.

-She's been just hanging 'round, flying and hunting at night, resting under the trees at day. And I gotta tell you, that animal's growing rate is amazing! You'll barely recognize her now.

Suddenly I felt joyful, way more than how I actually was. _This is Furia's mind… I got to see her!_

I asked Mr. Flynn if he saw Furia this morning. He didn't, but he told me where she usually rests; I bid farewell and trotted that way; leaving dad and Mr. Flynn to talk about business.

Suddenly Furia and I met midway. It's like she knew I was in the lands. But, what had drawn my attention the most was her size. When I left her here, her shoulders were almost as high as my waist; now, they were almost as high as my chest. I had to look up to see her face when she had her neck arched up.

I hugged her without hesitation and heard a soft, grave humming; it couldn't mean anything else. _ I'm so glad to see you too…_ And we walked, played. At a moment she just laid down. _Right, you fly and hunt at night…_ I laid against her and rested. As she didn't fell asleep, I talked to her from a moment to another, like sharing a thought or reflection, caring not if that made some sort of effect, just for the mere pleasure of sharing.

A pair of hours went by and we had to go home again. Dad had sent me a text message saying he wanted to see Furia; he wanted me to bring her to the porch. So I did. Once Furia and I got to the porch, dad was jaw dropped like he couldn't believe his own eyes.

-Now whose jaw dropped?

Joked Mr. Flynn. We then had a light farewell conversation until the inevitable happened… dad and I got to the truck and left.

That week passed like a snail race. Nothing much to tell about it; just that I kept my resolution of doing always my best impeccable. I sure cost dad a few animals, but he was happy of providing me with such support. I never had to see "the look" again. My life was finally getting somewhere. Before I found Furia's egg, I felt, somehow… glad mom died after my birth; that saved her the pain of seeing who and what I was. For once, I felt sad she died; now she will miss who and what I became.

That weekend, on the road to dad's lands, I reflected something. _Furia felt happy when I arrived last week, and she was too far away, maybe she's got really keen vision after all, but that doesn't include x-ray vision to see through the environments elements, such as trees and hills… do dragons have x-ray vision?... Forget about that; I'll try something else, a little bit easier._

The moment I arrived, I made my mind clear, that way I would be able to feel any stimulus. I greeted Mr. Flynn, bid him and dad farewell, then continued my experiment. I walked slowly not towards where I met Furia before, if I was able to feel her with my mind, or even contact her, I had to find out. After a few minutes of nothing, I felt something. It felt weird, but it happened at a moment I made a turn. _I think I triggered something. _I walked the other way and the sensation went weaker. _I got it! _Then I turned to that direction again and it got stronger. Suddenly I was running towards that direction.

Then I found her, sleeping under a tree. I approached slowly and called her very softly. She raised her head and looked at me. There was sudden joy in the air, she got up and dashed to me. Once right in front of me, I hugged her and she kind of hugged me with her neck; she made that grave humming again. Then I took measure of her new size… her shoulders were now slightly above my own shoulders, her head way bigger than my whole torso, her neck one to two meters long, her wings were just immense. _I'm just a snack to you!_

We both went back to under the tree she was sleeping; she curled up and I laid against her. Meanwhile, I told her about college, it was so relieving to release that pressure; even though she didn't understand a single word, I felt like she did. Also other stuff went through my mind. _Man, you are too big to play with; you could easily kill me by mistake. What am I supposed to do now?_ I didn't give that a lot of thought. We just passed the time laying there until I had to go. _I surely need to spend a night here, when you are active._

Those last 2 meetings of January, I spend them not only talking to Furia, but exercising our mental bond as well. I ran to a random direction, doing twists and turns erratically to then blindfold myself and get back with only my mind. I learned how to feel her at longer distances eventually.

February started, yet it would not be very different than January. A set of four visits to Furia, separated by a set of four long weeks. Still, I had my hopes for this month to be different. _I am the only person in this world with a dragon for a pet, there are surely more details to discover._ And I did, on my first visit of the month. I was lying against her, just resting, looking at the pieces of sky the tree we were under didn't block. The only sounds that could be heard were some sudden birds, soft breeze shaking the leaves of the trees, Furia's breathing at my back… and my name was suddenly called.

The voice was unknown; I thought Furia was seen by someone out of the selected group of people that knew her. I pushed myself forward and took a sitting position; examined my surroundings. There was no one around.

_Patrick…_ I heard the voice again, louder and clearer this time. I stood to my feet and looked around franticly.

-Who's there?

_Me._

My eyes got fixed on Furia. _Please tell me that was you._ A long silence followed. Maybe it was just a moment, or it truly was that long… I'll never know. _Why would I?_ It was a kind, young female voice, though it gave me goose bumps. I remembered of long ago, when the idea of Furia understanding words jumped in my mind for the first and only time.

_Can you understand what I think?_

_Yes._

I chuckled, feeling an amazing relaxation as I sat on the ground, facing Furia. I was so blanked because of the weird situation I was now dealing with: I had a gigantic urge to start a conversation with her, but, how would I do it? I mean, I already knew her, and everything about her. By the looks of it, I was like her best friend and managed to be it without a single conversation, like with a dog. That was exactly my dilemma. Usually, when you first meet someone, you present yourself, share some stories, details of yourself and expect the other person to do the same on the way. Everything goes by sharing opinions about a selected topic. But, everything starts with a trigger, that be a situation in which you are forced to collaborate with this person unknown or… an intentional "icebreaker".

She raised her head a little and looked at me when I said…

-So, you like it around here?

_Why don't you use your mind?_

_Well, I'm not used to… _I said/thought smiling.

_I like it here, lot of space, fresh air, and good quality game to hunt… It's all the contrary of where you spend the week; the city doesn't seem very pleasuring for what you have told me._

_Yeah, it's a total pain in the ass… why didn't you talk before?_

_I just managed to get the basics of your language; I might sound a little rusty sometimes, until I master it._

_Oh well, I bet talking a lot will help._

_It sure will._

I started with the first thing that came to my mind; I told her about my week.

_I bet there's something else, other than studying for those "test" things… and what purpose does that college serve? You make it sound very important._

_Not only me; humans, in general, need to have experience on something so they can perform a job and earn a living._

_Why not just self-sustaining, just like I do? I hunt my food, exercise and rest. I need nothing else than that, and your visits of course._

_I wish it was that easy for us, humans; there is much stuff involved, though. Even if I tried to become self-sustained, I wouldn't last very long, every human is born to be trapped on society's net. We want it or not._

_It truly is a shame to be human, I have nothing to envy from you._

_Yeah, thanks for cheering me up... Luckily I have you to remind me there's actually more._

Suddenly my phone rang and I answered.

-Dad?... already!?... Well, ok; meet ya there.

_I have to go._

I said as I stood to my feet and stretched.

_You better do, not to anger your father. Also make sure, for your next visit, to bring something else to talk about. You tell me about college like I was some kind of therapist!_

As she said that, she made a weird coughing-like sound. It took me a moment to realize she was laughing. Due to her lack of vocal chords, her laughing was a little different than human's. That made me smile, not exactly remembering everything I told her about college before, but the fact that now I could express myself with her, now I could share my ideas, my interests, what I like… now that she knows what I don't like.

During next week I barely kept myself together… _I'll be damned… now I am more anxious for the weekend to arrive than ever!_ Still, I comforted myself with the idea of the efforts to be worth something. Everything I could think of was Furia. Each week turned to just a blank interval of time between weekends, nothing happened during them. Even when I was studying or doing an assignment, I counted the seconds left for each day to finish and bring me closer to the day I would visit Furia. In smaller terms… I lived one weekend at a time.


	5. Stories told aren't Lives lived

**Stories told are not Lives lived**

Then the day arrived, my second visit of February. Once I found Furia with my mind, she greeted me.

_Each time it takes you less time to climb up here._

_Thanks, though you could wait for me at the foot of the hill._

_Naaa… I like it more up here._

_Come here you silly dragon…_

She raised and came to me. As she got right in front of me, she lowered her head and my forehead met hers. She hummed as I pet her side… I said…

_I was more anxious this week, than ever to see you._

_I'm glad to see you too…_

She arched her neck up and raised her head, walked, as I followed her.

_Where are you going?_ I asked her.

_Nowhere; let's just walk. So, how was your week?_

_Besides college, pretty nice, played some videogames, saw a pair of movies…_

_Videogames? What are those?_

_Well, they are… you remember movies, right?_

_Images and sounds that we seated on the couch and watched before playing again? _

_Yes. Videogames are the same thing, but putting you into the events of the story._

_Wow! Tell me the story of the best you have taken part in._

I told her the story of my favorite one.

_That's a good story… yet I didn't hear "Patrick did" nor anything, just the characters took part… where were you?_

_Mmmm… it doesn't work that way. I take part as one of the characters, the main one exactly._

_So, you have a second identity? You are indeed a ferocious warrior!_

I felt flattered, but, in less than a second, ashamed. I was amazing Furia with a story far from being real; at the moment, I was a great fraud.

_Actually, what happens in videogames isn't real, they are just for entertainment._

_Why aren't they real?_

_Because they are manmade, and also, they are programed to work that way, it's like it's supposed you survive and save the day._

_I see; still, would be awesome to have a story like that._

_Yeah, that's what intrigues me about them…_

_Do you have any epic story?_

I reflected for a moment and remembered a few good stories of myself, some in which I had to show bravery, some others were just funny or interesting. They weren't the big deal, like if I deserved some kind of heroic greeting or something. Yet they were what I was most proud of, besides Furia. I told her everyone I could remember.

…_so I grabbed him by his arm and told him "hey! The little girl is first in line and I'm next, so calm down!" then the guy backed off and took his place._

_I like these stories more._

_Thanks, though they aren't as intense._

_They are real. That's what matters and makes them even more epic._

She said, winking an eye at me. I smiled back and said…

_Oh stop it! You are making me blush…_

Then my phone rang. I picked it out of my pocket and answered. I had to go.

Furia and I walked to the house, where the vehicle was parked. We met dad and Mr. Flynn. Dad didn't know she could reason, he just greeted her like a pet and commented her actual size with Mr. Flynn. Her growing rate wasn't as fast as before; her shoulders were a few inches above my head.

_Won't you tell your dad?_

_I will, but not now._

_Well, you are on. See you next weekend!_

_See ya!_

Furia turned around and left. While dad and I bid farewell to Mr. Flynn, got in the truck and headed home. In the way, dad and I had a very interesting conversation.

-How do you see Furia around? I mean, you don't spend a lot of time with her, but still, have you noticed something strange in her? Like… I don't know anything weird?

-I have discovered something pretty interesting, yes. Still, I must ask… why do you ask?

-I was expecting you would tell me first, but, anyway… Cedric told me our cattle's quality had increased inexplicably… and curiously, since we brought Furia. Our customers are happier and want to expand internationally the deal we had.

-Those are great news!

-Yes they are, as they are creepy, but they are. Now tell me… What have you discovered?

-Well, it has nothing to do with the land, though. But here it goes… I discovered… I have some sort of mental link with her.

-What? Like you can communicate with her?

-Yeah. She is also reasonable; I had an interesting conversation with her.

-What? She thinks, reason? Well, that isn't as hard to believe as the whole dragon thing itself. Now you made me feel awkward, I didn't even bid farewell to her thinking she was just our weird guardian dog.

-That's the least to worry about, she knew you didn't know.

We kept commenting the matter; I also revealed the detail of the scar appearing at the first contact I had with her, not it being the result of a fall as I first told him. Dad took it all very well, while having lunch we just watched tv like we didn't talked about it.

That week went quickly. Or that is just the idea I make myself feel comfortable with. _Finally is Sunday!_ That day wasn't very out of my new usual, though I really enjoyed telling Furia more of the stories I knew, both mine and from videogames and movies. It was the next week, the last weekend of February, during which we talked a new interesting topic.


	6. The Way of the Rider

**The Way of the Rider**

She was lying under a tree and I was next to her, lying on the ground as well.

_Let's go to the highest spot..._

Suddenly popped Furia.

_Why all of a sudden?_

_We've been lying here for too long, even during the week I take a walk during the day._

_Well then... _I said, standing up. _We'll have to do it quickly, in less than an hour I'll be gone._

_At human pace it might be a big deal; hop onto me, I'll show you dragon pace!_

_Ok, let's do this!_

I climbed onto her and took seat behind the base of her neck. My legs met her shoulders. I saw where her now-closed wings born; not many inches behind her shoulders, they could move comfortably without meeting any of my body. I held tight with both my legs and arms to prevent falling as she started walking. I could feel every of her strong muscles working, taking us forward like an unstoppable force. I was having the time of my life, ducking when passing under a low tree, leaning with her movements and laughing of joy. She wasn't very fast, but she was strong, much more than an off-road vehicle.

We finally made it to the highest spot of my father's lands.

-Yeah! –I exclaimed, ending with an ear to ear smile.

She let out a roar as she opened her wings with one flowed move. I felt her pride and joy as we both stared at the view: the city was for us to admire, like a kingdom for its king. In a moment I imagined our pose. It looked awesome, me on Furia's back, her wings opened, with the whole world underneath us like… And I wanted to punch myself in the face.

How long was I planning to wait until this popped in my mind!? I couldn't believe that what I always imagined dragons were for slipped from my mind exactly at the moment I had one for real!

_We should totally do it._ She said with a determined voice.

_We will._

We talked the matter out and came to a plan of action on how to get me to spend a night in the lands and, most important of all, ride her. Also, we made an agreement: Until that day arrives, we would be preparing for this, physically. She would push further her limits, such as top speed and flying time, during her night flights and I would get rid of my dead weight; I wasn't exactly fat, but anything I could take off myself would mean a great difference in the air.

That same day, back home, I told dad about the issue. At first he wasn't very sure about this, due to its dangerous implications. I made use of every argument I could think of to win his support.

-Dad, I have experience on horse riding…

-You are afraid of horse riding, Patrick…

-That's why I want to do it; unlike horses, Furia cares for me, if I dare to fall she will catch me. And also, the ground will be hundreds of feet below, so she would have a lot of time to do so. Besides, I don't plan to do it bareback, I was hoping you and Mr. Flynn could help me make some kind of saddle or something I can get grip from.

I made it in the end. During that week, dad bought a lot of saddle-making leather and told Mr. Flynn about the project, for he was the one with the most experience on saddle-making. That weekend, we met Mr. Flynn and Furia at the porch. As I greeted him, he said…

-Patrick, you are surely one crazy fella! Scared to horses and look at what you come with now.

-You know me, Mr. Flynn. Not a single thought was given.

-Hell it wasn't, kid, let me see your dad.

I went to Furia, she lowered her head and my forehead met the tip of her mouth. We stayed in contact for a few moments. Dad called for me, suddenly.

-Come on Patrick, let's unload the truck, the sooner we start the sooner we finish.

I passed a thought to Furia in the moment.

_Alright, let's do this!_

The whole morning went off while taking measures on Furia's back and chest, where the elements of the saddle would take most part on. I showed them how I seated on Furia's back, then we took that position as a starting point. We used the measures to make a sketch of the saddle. Once it had form and looked how it will do when finished, we had lunch. We had a little rest afterwards, then proceeded to the next step of the project: making it real. Cut by cut, knot by knot… it began to look like a saddle sooner than we thought, or was it our excitement? Our desires of seeing it done? Anyway, we continued working for as long as we could. That took us even the whole evening; Mr. Flynn brought all the lamps and light sources from the house and we kept working even in the night. When it was too late, we got everything into the house; dad and I bid farewell to Mr. Flynn and Furia, thanked him for his help, then left.

During the week dad and I planned something. We could arrive to the lands on Saturday, work the whole day and test the saddle that same night and then spend the night there; there wasn't a lot left to do. Also, on Thursday night I was at the gym working out. When I finished my routine and went to the showers; with my towel around my waist, I took a look at how my body was developing strength and didn't look the same as before. I had a burst of pride as I saw my fat gone. I could use some more muscles and be stronger, but at the time, my new me on the mirror reflected more evidence of the changes finding Furia made in me. _In what other way will you improve my being, Furia? _I wondered, smiling.

-Looks like someone is proud of himself…

Said one of the guys I knew at the gym, right before leaving the showers. I changed up and leaved as well. Only bad thing was that it wasn't me the only one noticing the changes I was going through. That friend of mine that was too into my "acid accident" also was too into my improved grades, improved physic aspect. Still, I was able to send him away. Although he seemed to be like… suspecting something… _ridiculous, he is a good friend; he's just intrigued because it's actually true; I'm going through a lot of changes…_

When Saturday arrived, we put into the saddle right when we arrived to the house. During the afternoon, Furia was wearing the saddle. We adjusted the belts and straps so they wouldn't be too loose nor too tight; we asked Furia every time we made an adjustment and she answered through me. That was of a lot of help.

At early evening, the saddle was finally done. I did a pre-test by getting on, then Furia moved her wings in every direction, also her other limbs. Nothing seemed to be wrong placed, nothing seemed to be bothersome.

The zone of the seat had a layer of sponge material to reduce impact on my behind and Furia's back. On the front part of the saddle, was a strap for me to grab and hold with my hands and get grip. The stirrups were slightly angled, so my knees would be a little flexed, that way I would have grip on my feet in the counter direction of the wind; preventing me to slip. And as safety measure, it featured a pair of straps for my legs, one for each leg. They embraced the birth area of the leg, right under the waist, like a harness.

We brought beverages, food and camping chairs to the highest spot of the lands and waited for the night to fall. We talked a lot, zapping from topic to topic randomly.

When the last sunray went off and the sky was darker than Furia, I climbed onto her and strapped myself as dad walked towards us and Mr. Flynn yelled "The time has come!". Dad got near and grabbed my right foot as he handed me a small box.

-Once you take off… I won't be able to watch you… I'm leaving to you the responsibility of what happens up there.

I opened the box and saw aviation goggles. As I put them on, I answered.

-I won't be reckless, thanks, dad.

He then patted Furia's right arm and said.

-Have a nice flight.

-Have in mind not to scream! -Added Mr. Flynn. –I don't want people asking what the fuck's going on here!

-I won't. –I said grabbing the front strap with my hands.

Right before heading to his seat, dad told me one last thing.

-And remember, Patrick, to push yourself forward with your legs, the harness straps are just for safety.

-Roger that.

Dad backed off and went to his seat, he yelled "Once you are ready, son!" .

Furia slowly opened her wings, twisted her head and looked at me, her dark eye shining with moonlight.

_Are you ready?_

I was shaking, scared as hell. I knew this was different than riding a horse, still, the sensation was the same. I began to visualize my horse riding accident from the beginning over and over again until Furia's voice broke the chain with its appearance.

_We can come back later once you…_

I interrupted her, abruptly.

_No, we cannot wait more; else the idea of not doing this will become a good one, just take o…_ Fuuuck!

At the moment she heard the order, she fast paced a few steps, prepared her wings and jumped to the sky, movement followed by strong strokes of her wings. As for my swear, it began strong but died in the end, at least I remembered not to scream.

I could feel the wind's force on my whole body, still, the strength I was putting on my legs was doing good, I managed to support myself instead of just rest on the safety straps. I looked back and saw the lands becoming smaller and smaller; which made me hold harder on the front strap.

In a moment, Furia got balanced, we were just going forward. I looked down by my side and saw the city's lights like tiny points. Then I looked up and saw the sky, it didn't look very different, but the idea of being this close to it, without being in a plane, changed the whole story. I was completely euphoric, I felt that weird sensation behind the eyes; I felt like I was going to blow up.

_You can scream here! We are too far and going too fast for sound to reach land!_

My right hand let go of the front strap and raised my fist up to the sky.

-"Woooooooohooo! Yeeeaaah!"

_Feel any better?_

_A lot!_ I answered ending with a joyful laugh.

I felt her joy as she roared and laughed.

_This is amazing!_

Fear? I knew nothing about it. My blood turned to raging fire as I felt I could take on anything. I may have been afraid of horse riding my entire life; but I knew one thing for sure: I was born for Dragon Riding.

_Let's go higher! Faster! _I yelled in my mind.

_As you order!_

Her head tilted up, followed by her neck and body. We climbed the wind until she did a loop. _Hoooly shit! _While looking up, I was looking at the ground; weirdest sensation ever. I have gone to amusement parks, but even the top attractions were children games compared to this. Then Furia did a twist and got us to our original vertical orientation. I felt the wind strength growing up as I leaned forward to be more aerodynamic. Furia closed her wings a little and wind's strength growing rate increased much further as we dived to the ground. I felt my face like it was going to be ripped off from my skull like it was just a mask. Then, when the top of the trees got to be identified in the darkness, Furia angled up and curved right before touching them.

_How do you like speed!?_

_It's awesome!_

We did twists, loops, dive drilled… Everything that popped in our minds.

After making what appeared to be an acrobatic presentation, we flew still, just going forward like flying towards skies of happiness, if we weren't there already. We didn't talked for a while; we enjoyed the landscapes, our company, the whole experience. Minutes later the silence was broken.

_I'm going to head back; soon I'll need to rest…_

_Hear ya…_

She banked in a wide curve to our right and headed back to the lands. Once I recognized the lands I looked for dad and Mr. Flynn. We didn't brought up any kind of light source, just some flashlights. _I guess they are in complete darkness right now… _Though moonlight was amazingly clear once you get used to it, still it was impossible for me to find the highest spot.

_There it is._

Like a reflex, I looked to a direction and stared, it was the highest spot.

_Found it. _ I stated.

_What? Are humans that keen eyed?_

_I don't know, just a reflex._

_Lucky shot._

I felt our speed decreasing as we got closer to our selected landing zone. Furia glided down and hit the ground, softening the impact by flexing her legs and pacing until the energy we carried went to cero. Dad and Mr. Flynn walked towards us while applauding to our successful landing.

-Nice, son!

-How was it? Come and tell us the whole thing!

I unstrapped my legs and jumped down by Furia's left side, then headed towards them while running my right hand on her neck, finishing my travel with the underside of her jaw. I approached them and uttered…

-This is the most unbelievable experience I have ever been part of in my whole life!

They took seat while I stood, telling them every last detail of the twenty minutes I spend in the air, Furia curling up behind me. I was like a little kid, drawing with my hands every maneuver Furia and I did; she was paying attention to me, she seemed to like my narration style. When I finished, as I had some kind of dinner I started a new topic. I put on the table the idea of doing this weekly. Dad was reluctant at first, but due to Mr. Flynn's support and my insistent arguments, he gave up in the end.

We, including Furia, walked to the house. We carried the stuff in while she waited outside, still with the saddle on. They prepared their beds while I walked outside and went for another ride with Furia. We talked a lot during the flight and repeated just a few of the earlier maneuvers. One of the topics we treated was how I managed to locate the highest spot back then. After proposing some theories we came up to experimentation. I cleaned my mind and concentrated. If I involuntarily sensed Furia's sight, then there had to be a way of doing it voluntarily. It was until I truly cleaned my mind and shut myself from the world by closing my eyes that I managed to feel her senses. With my eyes closed, I forced my brain to look for visual senses somewhere else, outside of my mind; and the only place to find visual senses was through my connection with Furia. The first time I accomplished my objective scared me; everything was different, the tones of the colors, the detail; it was like her vision had super high definition… and the night vision… that was amazing! Her night vision was exponentially better than mine. Then I learned how to trigger this new ability… try after try… and made our bond even stronger.

As this flight wasn't as tiresome as the first one, we flew for around thirty minutes. Afterwards we went to her favorite resting spot; I unsaddled and climbed back onto her to ultimately sleep there, then she curled up putting end to the day.

_This makes me remember that night you born._

_Really? Why?_

_I was so scared that night… and in the end I let you sleep on my bed. You were making so much noise; you just wouldn't sleep elsewhere…_

She chuckled as she commented… _I can barely remember…_

_I won't forget that combination of fear and joy…_

_Then it was a good day…_

_Yup… it was an amazingly good day…_

We then proceeded to sleep.

Next morning, after breakfast, dad and I departed towards our home in the city. We decided it would be safer to leave the saddle in the country house. As for the week, it went at carousel speed the whole way like it was a bad joke.

I went to the lands at early afternoon on Saturday. I met Furia at the porch. Mr. Flynn wasn't around here at this hour; so I just took the saddle out and headed to the highest spot. After a light chat about our weeks, her next words had a serious tone.

With a piercing glance to the horizon, she spoke…

_Do you think there's more for us out there?_

We were both standing; I stood aligned to her eyes, her head diagonally above me, and stared to the horizon as well.

_What do you mean?_

_I mean, this is it? We will spend our existences just flying weekly at night? Won't we go further than your father's lands' confines? I hope you aren't getting me wrong…_

_I know the feeling…_

_I hope our lives aren't like… written or something… like forcing us to stay this way until the end…_

I chucked while answering… _It's called destiny…_

_Destiny?_

_Yeah, the story of your life, the decisions you make, everything is written and will happen no matter what. Some people believe in it, some others don't._

_Do you?_

_Not since I found your egg._

_Why did you stop believing?_

_Well, to be frank, I wasn't a lot of a believer, at first I just hoped for my destiny to be an awesome one; else from that, I just didn't give a fuck._

_Soooo?_

_Oh right… well, when I found you, your egg, I had some kind of catharsis. I swore to myself that I wouldn't wait for my destiny anymore. Whether it was good or bad; I decided not to care in a whole new level and write my own story. I decided to just be myself the best I could. I think that decision would get me to my true place… Going back; why this suddenly bothers you?_

_Just thinking of that "beach" place… it sounds awesome._

_Yeah, the beach is the kind of places that cannot be missed. We'll have to think something up._

_We will… but until then, let's enjoy today._

And that we did. The rest of the evening we talked and walked around, skipping from topic to topic; then went back to the highest spot at night's birth. Once we got ready, right before takeoff, I remembered a song which starts with the line "Here we go again motherfucker!" Furia knew the reference in my mind; not long ago I showed her some of my favorite songs. We ended up with the same music taste… we ended up with a lot of aspects in common.

In the middle of the flight, Furia told me…

_Take off the safety straps…_

I felt a weird sensation on the back of my neck; maybe it was the wind… no, I was already used to it; or maybe it was the confusion Furia's command provoked in me.

_What?_

_Just let yourself fall, I'll catch you._

_Why do you want to do this?_

_Consider this a saddle failure simulation…_

_Well, if you insist…_

At first I was reluctant, but… as time kept passing, this wouldn't let us enjoy the flight any further… after all, what could go wrong?

_Let's get higher…_

We ascended. Once she leveled, I took off the safety straps, each with its respected hand. I felt so vulnerable without them, as in the same time… free. She flipped upside down; I gripped myself hardly with my hands to the front strap and with my feet to the stirrups.

_Now you won't hit my tail! Let go!_

I looked up, which was actually down, and saw the ground. Regarding of the situation, the ground was really intimidating.

_Don't waste more time! Just let go!_

I closed my eyes and… at the instant I loosened my muscles, the wind ripped me off from Furia's back. I opened my eyes while franticly looking for something to grab, but the only thing I found was out my reach; I saw Furia flipping back and flying away.

_Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit, oh shit, oh shit, oh shit, oh shit, oh shit, oh shit…_

I couldn't find balance to my body; I was looking at the ground, at the sky, at the ground, at the sky… with every snapshot of the ground disturbingly closer than the last one.

And I felt like a Football player tackled me. I closed my eyes with the impact. I felt something in my mind; it was like when Furia laughed. I opened my eyes and saw Furia's claws around me. I realized my position and looked up, to Furia's chest.

_Get ready to climb up!_

She brought me closer to her chest. I stretched my arms and grabbed the saddle. She reduced the speed so I could climb back on easily… well, "easier" it's more appropriated, for climbing to the saddle of a flying dragon was far from being accomplished easily.

_How was it?_

_That was crazy!_

We landed while I was talking of nothing other than the free fall. She chuckled from one moment to another as I was finding something so mundane to her so fascinating. I skydived for the first time in my life. She rested up while we listened to some music.

We went for another flight, but with a new objective… dinner. I had a small backpack in which I carried my food, but Furia still had to locate then hunt hers. I couldn't help much with my mediocre human night vision and using hers would be of no help as well. Still, I used it; it was awesome and fun to see what Furia was seeing.

Once she located her game, a fully grown cow, I got ready for some first-dragon-view action. Her killing method was brutal: 1st acts, land front claws on prey, apply pressure and bodyweight on prey's legs until they are all broken. 2nd acts, keep pressure on prey's chest, preventing it from making any sound. 3rd act, snap broken prey's neck with jaw and completely rip the head off from the body. It all happened in less than five seconds. She felt my impression towards the scene.

_Haven't you seen a bit of blood?_

_From a killer to another killer, I've shed it as well, just in more subtle ways._

_From a killer to another killer, I hope you aren´t expecting any manners._

She said while swallowing the cow's head, entirely. To which I replied in my best exaggerated fancy talking style as I got my food out of the backpack.

_Why would I, my dear oversized reptile like companion, for your company is of most pleasant._

_Your observation is of my rejoicing, my respected easily portable pal._

We kept joking on each other in fancy talk while eating our food; she dismembering the corpse into pieces, eating even the bones, and I biting my sandwich until I was done. _Again my pet is having a manlier meal than me… unbelievable._ We both laughed at that.


	7. A Lesson of History

**A Lesson of History**

On last Tuesday of March, I was having a late afternoon snack at college with two of my friends; one of them was Adam, the one I have mentioned before. Suddenly, two guys wearing long coats approached our table. My friends and I stopped eating and looked at them when one spoke.

-You… with the glove. What's your name?

-Who's asking? -I answered.

The other one took out something from under his coat. It was a badge. With a strong tone he answered…

-The police department is asking.

-Well then, no need to turn harsh on me, alright? At least I have the right to know why I am being looked for…

I was almost pissing myself in fear. Still, I knew that in any kind of situation, keeping cool and selecting my moves wisely would grant a getaway. Then the first one talked.

-A robbery suspect has a weird scar on his right hand… you, sir, match very well with his description, if your hand doesn't match the scar, then you won't be bothered anymore and I and my partner will depart immediately.

_They are looking for a scar!? That's exactly what I have in my hand! And a very weird one! But what if it doesn't match? Should I delay the process? Time is always useful…_

-I had a very serious accident with acid not very long ago; taking my glove off will mean great pain for me.

_Not very long ago! Fuck, I blew it! Adam knows of the story to be months old! Will he notice my slip? I am so nervous I told the story like it was to a group of first-timers!_

The one that showed the badge grabbed his partner by an arm and made it face him. With a whisper I barely understood he said…

-We have no time for this…

Suddenly, Adam threw his dish at him like it was a Frisbee, hitting him hardly enough in the head to make him retreat a few steps. Then Adam jumped to the other one and kicked him in the belly; attack followed by a down-up punch to the jaw. Adam took the gun from the guy's holster and shot the other guy in the hand with which he was pulling a pistol from under his coat. Adam went closer to his defenseless adversary and with a hit with the gun's handle on the head, he knocked the guy out. The other one was just groaning of pain on the floor, he didn't mean a menace anymore.

I was frozen, just standing there with my throat more blocked than a traffic jam at rush hour. He picked up the other gun as well. Then came, grabbed me by my right arm and said, almost yelling…

-Follow me. You, –he signaled to our friend there- just say what you know, it ain't much…

We began fast pacing towards his car, he still grabbing me by my arm.

-You can let me go, ok? I think we are sa…

-Safe? No, we won't until you take us to your dragon… fuck! I would have killed myself if they had taken you! How did I allow you to fool me all this time!?

-I'm sorry!... wait, how do you know about my dragon?

-I'll explain, but on the way.

-Who were those guys?

-Hunters, trained to locate and kill dragon owners.

_What the fuck did I just involve myself with?_

-But… why? I haven't done anything!

-You became a dragon owner! That's what you did.

We arrived to his car. He tossed me the keys and said.

-You'll drive; take us to your dragon.

I was reluctant for a moment but… I just rolled with this. Besides, what other options were on the table? I started the car and said…

-It's a long trip; I want to know everything you know about this.

-I'll tell you a lesson of history you wouldn't get in a different situation, but you'll have to save sudden questions for the end, ok?

- (sigh) ok. –I said while taking us to the street.

-Long ago… and I mean long ago, before everything you know of human history, the world was leaded by two dominant species: humans and dragons. Once a human was born, it was destined to find a dragon egg. They found their eggs at childhood. Some did earlier than others, but it doesn't matter. The eggs always can be found in the territory of the owner's birth. Back then the land wasn't divided, but now is the same to say people will find their eggs in the same state or country of their birth…

-… It's believed each human was driven to the egg subconsciously, that they found them while following their hearts and stuff. Now, that was the world, every human had its own dragon; hunt, fly, travel, were the only matters; it was a simple worry-less world. Still, there was one characteristic that divided humans: the dragon's color. There were bright colored dragons, and dark colored dragons. Riders who had a bright colored dragon were part of the elite; they believed themselves to be superior. Riders who had a dark colored dragon just had to deal with it, though they didn't care a lot, for the only thing riders with bright colored dragons did was just not hanging out with them. Still, there were some riders with bright colored dragons that didn't care about the dragon's color; they hanged out with riders whose dragon was dark as well as they did with riders whose dragon was bright. Those riders were called "Exceptions" and were rejected by most elitist riders with bright colored dragons. There were also Exceptions with dark dragons; they wanted to belong to the elite. I don't know why that division happened, for there were exceptions on both sides. But well, I guess that's human condition…

-…Now, there was one Exception with a dark dragon that changed everything. He wanted to be accepted by the elitist riders with bright dragons so badly, and was rejected so many times that anger prevented him from socializing with any other rider for a long time. Loneliness drove him mad… and that madness created a plan not to get to be part of the elite, but becoming the elite itself. He recruited other riders with the same problem. They became a secret army that once big enough became an international sect…

-… Yet that was only step one of the plan. The termination of step two ended with the greatest bloodshed of all time. They planned to kill every single dragon whose rider wasn't with them. Just a few people resigned their dragon, everyone else fought along their best friend in the world. But still, almost all of those who fought survived without their dragons, because they weren't the target, the dragons were. Once the army declared that every other dragon was killed, they planned for the future. First: They appointed a big part of the army to find every egg and kill any who found an egg on any part of the world in the future. Second: they had to prevent people from following their hearts. They selected the most genius minds among them to create a strategy to deceive the whole world, not their generation, the future's…

There was too much information, I felt my mind being blown off; I had to interrupt him… with a gradually rising tone, I said…

-Wait… Adam, wait… where did you got all this? Why am I taking you to my dragon? What are we going to do!? What are you getting me into!?

-Dude, chill out! You are going to kill us both! Relax and drive. I'm going to answer everything you've got to ask, ok?

-(sigh)… what was my first question?

-How I got all this… My ancestor was one of those fighters who lost their dragon. There was nothing more devastating than losing your dragon. Many committed suicide within a month. But my ancestor resisted, he recruited people and created the most powerful guerrilla warfare strategy ever used. The fact that you are here with me is evidence of its success… Inexistence. As an army, they didn't manifest themselves to the enemy. They kept telling the story and gathering information of the enemy, passing it generation to generation. Some sons didn't carry it, but those who believed in their parents' words more than in the Government's, kept alive the truth long enough to plan a counter attack. The Dragon Society has only one weakness. Every blood chain got isolated from other chains. A communication strategy was impossible at the moment, which means every actual member of the society thinks its blood chain is the only one to trust, also knowing the possibility of finding someone else.

-How did that… Government… managed to deceive a whole generation?

-Believes and Sacrifice. Every single rider made the sacrifice of sending their dragon into the now known Bermuda Triangle and ordered them to kill everyone in sight, that's why everything that enters it just disappears. As for believes, they invented everything, all different religions and believes were created with the sole purpose of keeping everyone fighting over nothing. Starting with the first generation of none-rider children, every child was forced to go to church, and still, some of them believed more in the words of their parents.

-So the whole world as I know it… is not real?

-Reality, Patrick, is a bunch of lies so well told and to enough people to become a fact.

-Well… wait, if every dragon was killed… and the ones left were sent to the Bermuda Triangle… How come I found my egg in the sewers?

-When a male rider and a female rider loved each other…

-You lost the point of my question…

-Just listen to me; I know what you asked… When there was love between riders, there was as well between their dragons, if they had the proper gender of course. If not, which was rather odd to happen, they were pretty close anyway. Many have seen dragons while mating. But no one ever saw one laying a single egg.

-Then how are eggs made?

-There's no answer to that…

-So they just appear randomly? Out of nothing?

-As far as I know, yes…

-But that doesn't make sense!

-Many of the things you'll now see and experience won't make sense, keep that in mind.

I sighed and changed subject.

-Enough of history; what's the situation now? How is The Government running now?

-The resistance got a man inside once. The Government had nothing to worry but to keep finding eggs and killing those whose egg managed to hatch; half the dead people on the news is dead because they found their egg and managed to hide it long enough to see their dragon born, if the Hunters find the egg before hatching, they just take it away and send it to the Bermuda Triangle, but if the egg hatches, you are a dead man.

-What if the eggs hatch on the Bermuda Triangle?

-They can't, they can only hatch in the rider's presence. If the rider never appears and dies, they just get rotten.

-That's horrible… continue with The Government today…

-The Government had almost no security at all, they simply had no enemies. We have some details about how The Government runs: As far as we know, there are three dragons existing in the Bermuda Triangle at this very moment. One belongs to the head of the government, the second belongs to his son, and the third belongs to his father. Now, here's the trick: the head of the government has its dragon at the Bermuda Triangle protecting all the eggs the hunters send from over the world. Once his son becomes grown enough to lead the world, the head is sent to the Bermuda Triangle to live the rest of his life by the side of his dragon. But until that moment, his son is being trained like a warrior and taught everything related to dragons, he is also taught how to run the world for once he is in charge. When that time comes, the son is separated from his dragon and taken to the headquarters to become the new head of the government. The Government runs on the Vatican's money to cover all costs, being the main one the Hunters' living and their families. Hunters train their children to do nothing more than track down every egg and kill newborn dragon owners.

-… Now, back to the head of the government; he finds a woman, marries her, makes a son, and sends that son to his father in the Bermuda Triangle to be trained and ready to replace him. To then pass the rest of his life by his dragon and training his grandson in the Bermuda Triangle.

He finished taking a deep breath. Then I said…

-It's a family business…

-Yup…

-I… kind of… understand why they want me dead, to keep running the world as they please… but… why does the resistance want's me as well?

-The only thing that can defeat the dragons and riders in the Bermuda Triangle is another dragon rider and its dragon.

-Wait… what?

-We need you to fight with us…

I suddenly remembered how empty I was before finding Furia. All I ever wanted was a story to be part of. My mind took me to that conversation with Furia: "…_would be awesome to have a story like that_" Her voice rang in my mind countless times. In a moment, all that kept bouncing in my mind was "_a story like that… a… story… like…THAT_"

-Look out!

Screamed Adam; suddenly rotating the wheel. I was so in my mind that almost crashed with another car.

-I shouldn't be telling you all this in this situation, but we have no time; it won't be long before they get to know who you are by investigating the college student files. Also… you don't have any choice here, if you want to survive another day, you'll do exactly as I say… else you'll be found and killed… and now that you are a fugitive, they won't hesitate to shoot you at the second you are within their sights.

-I understand… What about my father? I won't jeopardize my family.

-Those were police officers, or at least fake ones. As Hunters, they won't harm your relatives after such an apparition in the middle of a college dinning; that would rise up curiosity and investigations from the real law enforcers. What they are going to do now is notify your father that same story they told us and that you ran away, they probably end up saying that you actually are the suspect they are looking for.

-My brother is studying out of the state, will he be ok?

-They won't go after him; they will try to involve the less people possible.

-So how will we contact my father?

-We are in a hurry now; anything we plan now will fail, ok? Still, we have to plan first how to get you and your dragon to my family's lands out of town. Now is your turn… tell me everything about your dragon.

-mmmmm… well… what do you want to know?

He raised his voice.

-Everything, Pat! How you found it, its age, its name, its color, its size… its whole story from the very beginning of its life! This is what I've been waiting for my whole life!

And I started from my adventure in the sewers. He was paying attention to my words like if I was telling him the secret of total happiness. Once I got to the birth night he took my right hand from the wheel, took my glove off and admired my scar.

-Epic stories born with this mark, Patrick.

When I spoke about Furia's color, he looked at me with surprise.

-Oh geez…

-What's wrong with Furia being dark colored?

-My parents, the owners of our lands, are elitists; they blame the whole thing on dark colored dragons and their riders in general, also my two brothers are elitists. Furia? That's a nice female name…

-Thanks, it's a she… what a warm greeting awaits for me…

I continued the story until the end. His eyes wide open when I got to the part of riding her. When I finished, he spoke.

-Even though you didn't know a damn about dragons… you raised yours like a proper Rider.


	8. When Darkness Falls

**When Darkness Falls**

Once we arrived to my father's lands, on the way to the house, Adam said…

-Who else knows about your dragon?

-Just my father, my brother, Mr. Flynn, the land keeper and now you…

-Once you contact her, first thing you'll do is to tell her you are with a friend. Dragons aren't much entrusted to strangers.

-Ok.

I parked the car by the house and contacted Furia. We decided to wait for her to come down…

_What are you doing here? It's Tuesday…_

_You won't believe all we have got to tell you?_

_We?_ It confused her I brought a stranger.

_I'm with a friend, his name is Adam. Come to the house, hurry._

We waited for Furia by the car. In the meanwhile, we had a talk.

-This is the only possible place for you to keep your dragon, isn't it?

-I'm afraid so, why?

-That means it's hundred percent sure they'll hit this place at any time, we have to be gone by that time; yet we can do nothing within daylight, your dark dragon will be spotted like a firefly in the dark. We'll wait for the nightfall; it's a couple of hours to that. Fuck… confrontation with Hunters is inevitable. Which leads me to ask you: have you shot a gun before?

-A .22 rifle, to hunt coyotes and other small animals. It's in the house, along with my father's 12 gauge hunting shotgun…

-Go get everything… and all the ammo.

I went to the house with my copy of the keys and grabbed my single shot .22 rifle, the detachable 4x scope and my ammo belt. When I was going to grab Dad's gun and the ammo crate, I heard a scream.

-Shit! Patrick, come out!

I ran outside as fast as I could and found Adam crouching behind the car and Furia hissing with a ferocious look on her eyes, also showing off her sharp, curved fangs.

_Furia wait! That's Adam, my friend!_

_I thought the one called Adam was with you, I didn't know who this was…_

She answered while lowering her guard, but never taking sights from Adam, who slowly got out from behind the car.

-This… this… this is amazing…

Said Adam; trying to surpass the block in his throat.

-… I never thought I would see such… a majestic animal… I always kept my hopes high… but it always seemed so impossible...

He began to get slowly closer and closer to Furia, timidly stretching his arm towards her.

_I'm going to have him for snack if he dares to touch me._

She said hissing lowly and guarding up again. Adam stopped his approach as I got near him.

-You better don't get close to her.

-Maybe you are right… we should get back to the scape plan. What have you got?

-My single shot .22 rifle, my Fifty .22 cartridge belt and my detachable 4x scope. The shotgun and the ammo crate are inside the house.

We went inside, directly to the gun locker. I gave him the shotgun and all the shells while I stayed with my rifle and all the bullets. He also gave me one of the pistols. After I saddled Furia, Adam said…

-Now let's go somewhere we can see this area from.

_What are you two on to now?_

_Long story. We are lucky you didn't eat him._

_He is the lucky one._

_Believe me… we are the lucky ones._

We walked to Furia's usual resting place; she selected it because of the view. On the way I told her a quick version of what was happening while I loaded my ammo belt. We sit down on the ground and Furia asked me.

_You know what's bugging in my mind? If those Hunters mean such a great menace to us, and he knew it, why didn't he kill them at the moment?_

Furia was right. Why not killing them at the college? What if he was with them? What if he just took me to this isolated place to kill me along with my dragon at the same time? I proceeded to load my rifle. Once the bullet was in the chamber I asked him…

-Why didn't you kill the Hunters back in the college?

-I knew this was going to be brought up… This will sound not much for an excuse: I didn't kill them because it would've been harder to bring you here, don't you think?

You would have probably run away from the armed guy who started killing cops for no apparent reason.

-I guess that makes sense… I hope so…

-Nothing have changed, we are still friends. The fact that you are still alive proves it.

-How?

-I could have killed you at the moment we arrived here.

-No, you couldn't. Not so close to Furia to hear the shot. You wouldn't have made it out of here alive.

-That's a good point. Though you are missing something, remember when I told you that riders survived without their dragons?

-Yeah?

-There were no rider-less dragons in the end of the battle. Dragons can't live a single minute after their rider's death. It's exponentially more devastating for them than their death is for the rider. When the rider dies, the dragon roars one last time; the loudest and strongest roar ever heard from that dragon. Then… it dies. Dragons suffer the worst death ever if their rider dies… they die of Sadness. In conclusion, the easiest way to kill a dragon is to kill the rider.

I ran into silence. I just looked at Furia and she fixed her sight on me.

-It won't take a lot until I get to prove I am on your side. –Adam said.

I kept my sight on Furia, waiting for her to give me a hint. Because… I didn't know what to do… Through the events of today my thoughts were… _ok, I can handle a little bit of history… oh sure, now I just have to be a fugitive for the rest of my life… How cute? Now my life is at stake..._" But now… the whole event of mine, and most important, Furia's survival rested on the decision of trusting or not my old known friend despite of his weird and unguaranteed statements.

_I can't see any other option… Patrick._

_Should we trust him, then?_

_No, but we'll do as he says… We'll keep keen eyes on his moves._

-We'll follow you, Adam. As you are the experienced one, you'll make the calls.

-Lovely… -He said patting my back- There's still an hour left for nightfall, they will arrive at any moment. This is what we are going to do…

He explained us a strategy to make time for the nightfall in the case of a confrontation with the Hunters. Furia would stay there to be our eyes, telling us through me any useful detail of the enemy. While we went downhill, positioned ourselves not very far from each other and waited. If they didn't arrive, well then, we proceeded to the escape tactic, which consisted on Furia taking Adam to his lands following his directions, then to come back, pick me up and take me to the same place. Going both of us on the same trip crossed our minds, but the idea was discarded because of the risk of Furia not being able of taking that weight for a long distance; she would need to rest midway and there was no guarantee of a safe place to rest.

Over half an hour later, I felt Furia contacting me.

_The Hunters have entered the lands! Two vehicles approaching!_

I informed Adam.

-Remember Patrick, to the head! You won't do much with that .22 otherwise! Keep them as far from us as you are able, that's our advantage despite being outnumbered!

I have never shot a person before; still, it could be just the same as hunting coyotes… that little puff of red smoke after the bullet's impact is common for my eyes. As the car came closer, straight toward us; I went to a prone position and put the cross on the driver's head. _I'm on a hunting trip… I'm the hunter here, not them… they are prey… prey… prey… _And I squeezed the trigger slowly until I made the shot. Immediately, the bullet hit the glass leaving it with a tiny hole. The car lost control for a moment, and then went for a stop.

-Nice shot, Pat! Keep it going!

I reloaded my rifle and aimed again. The second car stopped behind the first one. Three people came out of the first one and four came out of the second one. They went to the trees and got harder to pick as a target. I went to a crouched position because of the movement it granted me. I finally managed to put my scope on a head… and I shot. I won't forget that day… that very second… The bullet hit the man on the side of his head, then his corpse fell dead on the ground. I threw up immediately; luckily I twisted my head before staining my rifle with vomit.

-Patrick! Are you ok!?

I simply nodded, wiping my mouth with my sleeve.

-They are too close, forget the scope!

He said unloading a shell. Its detonation made my .22 sound like a B.B. gun. I then proceeded to detach the scope and began using the iron sights. The Hunters began shooting as well, once we were on their S.M.G's (Sub-Machine Gun) effective range. One of their bullets hit the tree I was taking cover so close to my face that woodchips flew right at my eyes.

-Fuck! My eyes!

-Were you hit!?

-No! I'm ok!

-We need to retreat! They are overwhelming us!

One at a time, Adam and I retreated. But it was useless; they kept closing on us continually. Our guns never stopped shooting, except for the reloading times, which didn't mean a lot for me; my rifle was a single shot, so, yet with a low fire rate, I never stopped shooting. Also, neither did them. One of them met my iron sights, and I didn't hesitated. Adrenaline made me react right before I could remember what I felt when I saw that man falling dead on the ground. This time my bullet went through his neck. That meant five Hunters left and shooting at us, but in a moment they became four as Adam blew half a face with the shotgun.

Suddenly, I felt a punch on my chest that brought me to the ground with piercing pain. I didn't manage to scream before falling, my hands wanted to turn to fists but the rifle was in the way. That was how I wasted my last rifle round.

-Patrick! Hang on!

I felt weak and like a buffalo danced on my chest. I left the rifle on the ground and awkwardly took my hands to my chest; it felt wet. I heard a voice, but it wasn't clear…

_Patrick!... Patrick! Wake up! Patrick!_

I felt a slap on my face… and I saw Adam's.

-It's just a scratch!... –he yelled at me.

He took my pistol from my pants and put it in my hand.

-…raise your arm and shoot! Come one you weak bastard! Shoot!

He then got behind and dragged me by my shoulders. As he told me, I raised my arm and shot, though I wasn't sure of what I was shooting at… Everything was dark and blurry.

_Enough! I'm coming down!_

-Furia… coming…

-Tell her not to! It's too early!

There were some sunrays still alive. We had to wait for the complete nightfall for Furia to take action. We couldn't allow her to be hurt, not when she was our only hope for survival. With a continually weakening mind, I told her to wait.

There was a moment in which I just couldn't lift the gun. I tried and tried, but I just couldn't lift it. I informed Adam about the situation…

-Adam… I ca… I can't… shoot…any… more…

-Fuck no! Patrick!

He took his pistol and began shooting fast rounds. It wasn't very important to actually hit someone; keeping them at bay was his goal… one that we both failed with catastrophic conclusions. He was hit on the shoulder and felt to the ground behind me. But he wasn't defeated yet; he emptied his gun, took mine and emptied it as well. He put his hand on my chest and talked to me in low tone. My vision was barely working and my focus was lost.

-Stay with me Patrick… I know you can hear me… just don't go… stay here; you will make it out of this…

Once the last ray of sun died, all Hell broke loose. We heard their footsteps breaking branches and leaves as they got nearer and nearer, but they stopped with one of Furia's roars.

-Hurry! Find the ri…

First act: Furia landed in front of the one who was talking, bit half of him off and threw the corpse away. Second act: Furia used one of her claws to reduce her second target to mashed meat. Third act: last two targets were eliminated simultaneously with a whip of her tail. Everything happened in less than ten seconds.

Adam torn apart his own shirt to strips and bandaged our wounds. He then pushed me up to Furia's saddle and strapped himself. Holding me tight, he ordered Furia to take off. I was in a critical state, and Furia knew it… trusting Adam or not, she cooperated sharply. On the way, I lost all consciousness.


	9. Welcome to the Family

**Welcome to the Family**

I felt conscious, but still hadn't opened my eyes; they were too heavy to open. I started analyzing sensations. The first one was where I was laying on; it was soft, comfortable; on both sides, on and under me, actually. And my head was on a pillow… but where was I?

I made an effort again to open my eyes and succeeded… just to find more darkness. _What time is it? Is this the same night? Or the next one? How long have I been sleeping? Where is Furia? Where is Adam? Am I dead and buried!? ..._

_If the gunshot didn't kill you, all those questions will._

I had a huge burst of joy, I tried to push myself up, but I felt as a nail was being twisted in my chest. I fell back to the mattress.

-Furia…

_Don't talk, use your mind, silly._

_Right… I can't believe we made it out of there. Where are we, for the matter?_

_We are in Adam's lands. Somewhere in the outskirts of a place he said to be named "Levelland". _(She closed her wing, allowing me to see we were under a tree, the sun tried to penetrate through the tiny windows the leaves had to the sky)_ You scared me like hell when you passed out on the way here… don't you fucking do that again!_

_I think I won't… (_She touched the side of my head with the tip of her mouth) _Where's Adam?_ I asked._  
_

_He's talking with his parents.  
_

_How long have I been sleeping?_

_Just a night, this is the next day's noon. Now stop asking questions and sleep._

_Why? What's wrong now?_

_Adam's family looked very upset at our arrival. Adam is still trying to prevent them from kicking us once you are ok. I just hope he finds the way through them...  
_

_You seem to trust him now…_

_He's doing good trying to earn my trust… What do you think is waiting for us now?_

_That's a good question and a hard to answer one… a few days ago we didn't see ourselves out of my father's lands, did we?_

_We sure didn't… go back to rest, I'll be here._

I fell asleep until nightfall. When I woke up, Adam was sitting next to me, along with Furia.

-Adam…

-Hey there Pat… feeling better?

-Scratched…

- (chuckles) yeah…

-How's the shoulder?

-Doing well…

-We have been wondering… what now?

-Now? You rest and recover patiently; you and your dragon are safe now.

-I don't mean now as right now. I mean… the next move; I won't be injured forever.

-No, you won't, which is a shame. Seriously, just rest. Once you are able to get on your feet by yourself, you'll wish you were injured. I'm going to bring you some soup.

He stood up and left, giving me a chance to have a talk with Furia.

_Should I insist? Furia?_

_How surprising can the answer be?_

_That's what scares me…_

_I'm glad it does. We need to be on our feet to bear what's ahead. Both of us._

_I guess you are right… have you hunted something this days?_

_I'm ok, don't worry._

_No, you aren't. I can feel something's disturbing you, and it's apart from all this, I can tell._

_Ok, I haven't hunted anything. I was going to do so last night; then this whole fugitive thing happened._

_Then go ahead. I'm not going anywhere._

_I can't leave you alone._

(Sigh) _I know, but now it's necessary, how will you protect me while starving? We need to be on our feet, remember?_

_Ok, but do not let them get you in the house while I'm gone._

_On this same spot I'll wait for you._

She took off; not much earlier than Adam arriving with the soup.

-Feels weird to see her leaving you alone…

-Why?

-She has always been by your side. And there was no way to change that. We tried to get you into the house but she guarded up like killing the first one who pushed further; we operated you on the ground. Luckily it was a clean shot; we just had to stitch you up.

-I just told her to hunt; she was hungry.

-And don't you go easy on her decision. She went because, and only because you are awake and can call her if something happens.

I would have punched myself in the face so many times if my arms weren't so heavy.

-I'm sorry… I'm not thinking straight…

-I wouldn't either after being shot in the chest. Now shut up, you must eat too.

He then gave me the soup. At a fast pace, not allowing me to say a single word. Once I finished the soup, he stood and headed home and I called him…

-Adam! -I grunted of pain right after saying that.

He just turned, just waiting for what I had to say.

-Thank you, Adam. Even if it was your duty, mission, whatsoever… Furia nor I would be alive now if it wasn't for you. We owe you our lives.

-You'll pay that debt sooner than you think… rest well.

- Wait, what about your family? Did they accept me?

-Barely, don't expect much interaction with them.

He turned around and leaved; leaving me alone with my thoughts. I didn't know at first if I should just sleep... or if I should analyze something… or… I spent a lot of time like that, just wondering. Without noticing, I found myself thinking about myself, back when I didn't had Furia. _When did I become the right person for the job?_ It was then when Furia arrived that I found tranquility to sleep.

A month passed before I was ready for the next step. During which, Adam called his close group of friends, four guys also members of the Dragon Society. Their first task was to get Intel from the area we were going to make the call to my father from. They were like spies. Once we received the "zero threads", they took me to the phone and I made the call. It was a rushed one; we timed it just for 30 seconds long so no one could trace us from my father's phone. My father was very worried and upset, I could tell by the tone of his voice. I could not tell if he got well the part of the message that said "Don't try to look for me; I'll reach you once this is all over" Back to the part of being traced, I asked Adam about his college files; if the Hunters could find me… why couldn't they find him as well? It happens that everything I and the college knew about Adam was a lie, along with the whole world itself. Not even his name was Adam. His name was Clyde Barton. It shocked me at first, though I was kind of expecting something like this would happen.

The "step" I referred to before… was "Training". Since the moment it was safe for me to endure physical stress, Clyde and his friends trained me to fight during the day and taught both Furia and I "Extreme Flying" to improve Furia's numbers, such as top speed, time capacity of flying at top speed and general endurance; while I learnt to endure and control crazy situations in the air. I slept just a couple of hours a day and not even in the house, but outside with Furia… by my decision. At first it was exhausting, but I faced each of Clyde's friends as true opponents during combat training. On the long runs through the almost desert like lands under the sun, I reached the point of passing out many times, and when I was with Furia we flew every time better and tougher than the night before.

By the end of May, I could take on two of Clyde's friends and put on a good fight and Furia doubled her stats by then.

But it all wasn't just training; Clyde's friends moved here for the occasion. We ate meals together and during resting times, we got to know each other better. Even if I was punching one of them in the face at a given moment, I became part of the family.

One weird thing was… when Furia got to 6 months old at the beginning of June, Clyde told me "Now we start the real training".


	10. The Dragon Rider's Gift

**The Dragon Rider's Gift**

The training became intensified… multiple times, I shall say. The combat training now included blunt weapons, but not in my hands. I got beaten up in a whole new level.

We continued like that for 2 weeks. Every single one of my bones hurt like hell. I had bruises almost on my whole body. Daily beatings did a lot of damage on me, not only physically. One of the hardest challenges was preventing myself from hating them, I knew there was nothing personal on all this, but many times I found myself searching for the point of all this. If it wasn't for Furia, encouraging me to hang on after each fight; I don't know if I would have gone any further.

In the end of the second week they woke me up at the day's first light. I stretched up along with Furia, but Clyde said…

-Not today, Furia… This is special for Patrick.

I kept myself silent and looked at her. Once our eyes met, I did a nod to her.

_Good luck… _She said laying back down on the ground.

They walked me to an isolated zone. On the way I had an urge to ask where we were going to, but I kept it for myself; neither them said anything after they ordered me not to call Furia by any reason.

Once we arrived to their selected place, one of them pulled a pistol, it didn't worry me at first, but when I realized it had a silencer and it was being aimed at me, I felt goose bumps on my back. This time I did spoke…

-What's that for?

-If we see the dragon, I'll shoot.

-Clyde, what's going on?

-You are delaying us. (He answered.)

-What are you talking about?

I felt a strike on my right leg. The pain was sharp, it made me totter. I looked at my side and saw one of them with a wooden baton.

-What the fuck are you doi!…

He hit me with a reverse strike at my face. It turned me around and made me fall to the ground. I crawled away and heard steps by my side. I saw the guy swinging the baton to hit me again, but I hit him first on the knee, strong enough to break it backwards; the guy fell to the ground groaning with pain. Clyde and the other 3 got nearer. I got to my feet and, at the very second, felt a kick on my stomach; which sent me back to the ground. Two of them pulled me up by my arms, also preventing me from defending myself. Clyde got in front of me and punched me multiple times in the face and torso. Eventually, I wasn't standing anymore; I would have fallen to the ground like a rag if the guys weren't holding me up.

-Do you think yourself irreplaceable!? Huh? (He said with a last punch at my belly.)

_What the fuck is going on Patrick? Even my inners feel like hell!_

_Don't come, Furia! They'll shoot me if you get on sight!_

_Who'll shoot you!?_

_Clyde and the others… I'm going to get out of this… just don't come!_

_Those fucking traitors! I'll wait for your signal; I'll rip 'em all to pieces!_

-Having a little chat with Furia?

I spat blood at his face. He said her name as a joke, I could tell by his tone while saying it.

-Don't you fucking say her name!

-What are you going to do!?

He went for another row of punches to my face and torso. Then continued…

-I'll tell you what you are going to do… You'll have to defeat us to survive this… otherwise, you are fucking dead. Looks like you are done with one… Four left.

The two guys threw me at Clyde. He bent, carried me by my waist and threw me backwards like a football player would.

-Stand up and prove us you got what it takes to be a Dragon Rider!

I pushed myself up… just to see a knee in front of my face. I felt to my side and spat more blood at the ground.

-You are pathetic… I don't know how it was someone like you who actually made it so far with its egg… A pure no one, a blank space in existence… it was when you found it that you became something… do you think finding it made you worthy of it? Fucking prove it then!

While he was talking I rolled away from him and slowly composed myself upright. Once ready, in a low tone I said…

-I'm going to kill you… all of you.

-See if I care! The only one here with something to lose is you. Do you value it enough?

I knew he was talking about Furia. And he was right, even if it was just one thing, I had something to lose and that was Furia.

I had fire for blood; I ignored the pain of the other hits, enough to get ready to fight… I slowly walked forward. Clyde made a signal and the guy holding the gun took the baton and tossed it to him. It didn't make me slow down nor hesitate. I tried to punch him in the face, but he dodged me. I continued my row of attacks without success, until he blocked and counter attacked me. His row of attacks was devastating as it involved the baton. Back on the ground with new hits to endure, it was harder for me to get up. I unsuccessfully tried many times while Clyde spoke…

-You are useless! You can't hit me; not even one single time! Let's get done with this.

Did I hate them? Yes… with all my might. Did I found the point of all this? No. I wasn't even looking for it anymore. I just knew one thing; I wasn't going to let Furia die. I didn't know life without her. I have lived without her, but I forgot that time, I ripped it off from my mind. I was going to kill Clyde, his friends, and whoever got in my way and dared to threaten Furia. I would protect her by any means, and this time was no exception… I had to save myself to save her. I filled with rage my whole being, I pressed my teeth to overcome pain. I knew that this was my last opportunity of surviving. If I didn't defeated Clyde this time… then I would ever do.

Clyde took the gun from the other guy and approached me. I was aware of what was going on; I waited kneed, looking down with my hands on the ground. He located himself right in front of me and put the canon on the back of my head. And not even a second later… I reacted. With my left hand I pushed his right arm (which he was holding the gun with) up while with my right one I punched his stomach. I pushed myself up; once on my feet he punched my face with his left arm, but I ignored the hit and recovered fast. I twisted his right arm outwards, making him drop the gun and punched him in the face with my right hand. He kicked me away, making some space between us, but I didn't fell. I charged at him while pulling my right arm backwards to punch him the hardest I could. He grabbed the baton and faced me. With a ferocious roar I threw my punch as it got covered in a dark cloud of smoke, I didn't reacted to that, for I had one and only one goal in my mind: Survival. Anything else meant crap for me. Clyde tried to cover my punch with the baton, but failed. My hand went through it like it was nothing, leaving an explosion of woodchips and the upper part of the baton flying away. To my infortune, he also dodged the hit; his face was just millimeters away from being hit by my fist. And to my confusion, the three guys standing, plus Clyde himself, surrendered. He got away from me and stood by their side.

-This was planned! This was all carefully planned! The pistol has no bullets! We were never going to kill you!...

I felt weaker and weaker every second as my strengths were drained from me. I eventually couldn't stand up by myself.

_What was that!? Patrick! Are you ok? Forget it, I'm coming!_

_Don't… kill… anybody…_

I ended up lying on the ground and everything turned slowly to black.

I woke up and it was still dark. Just that when I stretched my arms up and touched the sky, I realized I was under one of Furia's wings again. I pushed myself up to a sit position as Furia closed her wing, allowing me to see it was midday, she spoke…

_Slowly; Clyde told me everything. Yet there was a part he wanted to tell you himself. _Furia said.

_Where is he?_

_In the house, but…_

_Follow me, I'll drag him out. He has a lot to explain… _I said while standing up.

_Do you want to hear what I know?_

_Yeah. _We began to walk and continued the chat.

_When I found you and the others, all I did was picking you up and leaved. Then took you here and waited. Clyde came by one time, but I didn't allow him to get closer. Still, he told me what happened…_

_What did he told you for what happened?_

She narrated every detail of the event, it proved Clyde was sincere with her.._. Then he said all was planned to bring something out from you, like an instinct… I don't know what… maybe that's what he wants to tell you himself._

_Let's get to the bottom of this._

Tottering and meeting the ground more than one time, due to the difficulty of walking with every limb plus my torso hurting me like there was no tomorrow. Luckily the house wasn't very far from where we were. When I approached the porch, I called for Clyde. He slowly opened the door and came outside.

-Patrick. I have a lot to tell you about these last weeks.

-It seems to me like so.

-Do you feel well? What you did in the morning is no matter to take easy. Want to wash yourself before talking?

-What the fuck happened out there!? I was decided to kill you all!

I said with a high tone, also signaling the direction where the morning events took place.

-We all were ready for what could happen.

-And what was all that exactly!?

-Your dragon reached the age of six months old. At that point, its Rider is ready for Vital Energy Usage.

-What?

-In shorter words… Magic.

-That explains my smoky fist when I broke the baton.

-You don't know how glad I am to hear that! -He said grabbing me by my shoulders.

-Didn't you see it?

-Only Riders and dragons are able to sense Magic. Finally we are done!

-With what?

-That torture-like training we were putting on you! Today we decided to go even further away. There are only two ways for a Rider to discover how to use Magic: Casually and Instinctively. What we were trying to do all this time, since your dragon reached six months old, was forcing out your magic by stressing you like you've never ever been.

-I think I get it.

-Even though it was required; I'm sorry for what I said back then… I disgraced Furia's name… along with other things that I truly regret saying.

I sighed long, and then answered.

-Don't regret them… as you said, they were required. If you wouldn't have done that, I most surely wouldn't have found the… energy thing.

-Thanks, feels good to take that off my chest. I also have one good new.

-And that is…

-We'll celebrate tonight! For you finally reached the next level of your training; we'll all drink till drunkenness!

He said joyfully raising his fists to the ceiling. As for me, I didn't have words. There was a celebration planned in my name; and it wasn't just an ordinary birthday, or meaningless school related celebrations, such as graduation. This celebration was being thrown for me because of a true achievement; because I proved I was worthy of Furia, of being a Dragon Rider, of being a symbol of hope for the Dragon Society… I was worthy of who I was then. Even if all Clyde said was unintentional and planned, it had a meaning for me, otherwise there wouldn't be any celebration.

I raised my right hand, offering a crossed handshake. Clyde answered the handshake. As I said…

-I wish I could express what this means to me…

-Don't worry… Though, you should really take a shower… and put some ice on your face.

- (I chuckled and said with sarcasm…) You think so? (Back to a serious tone) How's Oliver? I kicked his knee pretty bad...

-He'll be fine… won't walk for over two months, but he'll be alright…

-I'll go see him anyway… wait for me here; I still want to talk with you.

-Alright.

I went upstairs, to the rooms and saw him lying on the bed. The cast on his leg was tied to the ceiling, having his leg slightly angled upwards. I apologized for breaking his knee in such a way, but he told me it was ok; he would have done the same thing to me if we had switched places back in the morning. I bid him farewell and went back to Clyde downstairs. Along the way I met the others; they congratulated me and didn't said more. They knew I was on my way to see Clyde.

Clyde convinced me to take a shower, clean the blood off my face and then we would talk during lunch. So I did. When I entered the bathroom, I almost jumped from what I saw at the mirror. I had never seen my face so deformed and covered in blood. Every hit went through my mind again as I washed my face in the sink. I barely felt the water. When I took my clothes off, I found lots of bruises and discovered a piercing pain when touching or moving the torso. I found two broken ribs on my right side. The cold water felt at the same time so pleasant and so painful. I laboriously managed to wash myself, grunting of pain from a moment to another. When I was finally done and changed myself far from easier than the other activities, I went down and seated next to Clyde at the table. Everyone served their food, and once Clyde and I were ready to eat we had a talk during the meal.

-Tell me about magic… how did you call it the first time?

-Vital Energy. It comes with dragons… the first time you touched your dragon, tell me about that again…

-I felt like I was electrocuted. It was a sharp pain that went through my whole body.

-That "electroshock" was the energy being transferred to you from your dragon. It is also the explanation for all of your changes.

-But that started when I found the egg…

-It isn't an accurate science, alright? The thing is that you weren't… alive, before finding the egg. It's in that moment that you actually born. Finding the egg, touching the dragon…

-Why wasn't I capable of using it before?

-You have to let it grow and get stronger, only time has effect there. It's also involved with your physical strength. Back then, before the Great Massacre, experiments were done to discover when was the exact dragon's age for its Rider to use magic.

-So now, how do I use it?

-Next time we train... in a couple of days…

-You broke two of my ribs…

-What? Really?

-Really…

-Well, next time we train, in a couple of weeks, you'll re-trigger what you did that time. Don't bother yourself now with it, enjoy the meal and these… unexpected vacations; it's stupidly easy to use magic once you discover it.

-You are right, no more training until further notice.


	11. A Little Piece of Heaven

**A Little Piece of Heaven**

Later in the afternoon, Clyde's friends, except of the one with the broken knee of course, went out to buy liquor while the two of us rested along with Furia at her favorite spot. She was lying on the ground while I was lying on her back; Clyde was on the ground as well.

-There was something tricky about this morning… besides what we have already talked.

-What?

-When the others were holding me down and you made mashed meat of my inners, Furia asked me what was going on, she could feel what I was feeling.

-What about that?

-Well… explain it of course. How did she manage to feel what I was feeling?

-That all have to do with your mental link with her, the stronger it is, the stronger you'll both feel each other's senses, feelings, even physical stimulus. Pain included. That ain't motive to worry, but to be proud of; this means your link is strong.

-And magic? Is magic included?

-Yup... Dragons feel their rider's usage of magic because, in a sense, is attempting against their lives. If a rider goes off its limits with magic, it will ran out of Vital Energy and die.

-How will I know what amount of magic I am capable of using?

-Practice. Also taking the training slowly. You'll find how, at first, even the smallest use you give to magic will exhaust you at the moment.

-That's why I passed out right after breaking the baton.

-Exactly. And you were lucky; you could have killed yourself if you had gone a little bit further.

-Hear ya…

When the others arrived with the beverages we all met at the house. They also brought coal and meat. After getting everything in the house we went to catch a cow for Furia to join us in the feast. We tied the cow down and rested. Later at nightfall, we set the grill and prepared the meat, everyone with a beer in their hands. As I couldn't do any kind of strength required job, I took care of the grill while the others brought wood for a bonfire. They brought wood like for a whole winter and piled it up. When we started the fire we had to back off several meters away to escape the infernal heat. The party started with Furia performing her killing method on the cow. Before reducing my cognitive abilities with alcohol, I felt sad for Oliver missing this. Clyde took it away by saying "Patrick, this is for you! It's your party, not his; there will be others he will attend to. You are the one who shouldn't miss it worrying about nonsenses!". Blood being spilled to the ground, we ate till nourishment and drank till drunkenness, playing jokes on each other, singing songs… Even Furia participated; she roared with the strong points of the songs and also drank. I wondered who in the world would drink all those beer barrels the guys brought.

_What the hell is the purpose of drinking this stuff!? I feel all numbed and dizzy!_ She asked me.

_I don't know! Don't mind that, it's fun!_

_You are right!_

One by one we were defeated by alcohol; we just couldn't stand anymore and fainted to the ground. Before I did, I tottered towards Furia, who was lying on the ground motionless, only her breathing being heard.

-I friggin love you Furia, you're the best…

That said, I tried to climb onto her, fell to the ground and passed out.

Next morning I woke up and slowly pushed myself up, feeling the nails of hangover in my head. I could barely remember the events of last night. Once I got to a sitting position, I looked around; saw the others still on the ground, Furia as well, the epic pile of wood was reduced to a lot of ashes, lots of bottles of beer scattered all over the place, along with the barrels.

-This was a real party… -I told myself.

_Patrick?_

I looked back to Furia. _I'm over here, how do you feel? _I told her.

_I'm so fucking ill… My head hurts a lot… _(She grunted of pain and slowly raised her head)_ What happened? I can't remember anything…_

_Don't worry, that's "hangover" it happens after a night of heavy drinking._

_What? This isn't an illness? This is usual?_

_Yup_

_You humans have a weird sense of fun…_

I laughed slightly, stood up and stretched my whole being._ Yeah we do, you had a lot of it too._

_The part I remember at least... If it wasn't for this hangover thing…_

I got near her and pat her neck. _It'll go sooner than you expect, I'm going to take a shower._

_I'm going to the lake; I'm so thirsty I could drink it whole._

_There's a lake here?_

_Yeah, I often hunt my prey there, when they are distracted while drinking._

_I'll go with you then, it'll feel so well on my ribs. _I said while climbing onto her; she stretched her whole body before walking.

_Bet it will, it isn't large enough for me to swim but at least I can get submerged and relax._

We arrived to the lake._ I wonder why Clyde didn't show me this… maybe because of training purposes. I won't bother myself anymore nor will I bother him when he wakes up. _I climbed off Furia and took my clothes off, except of my underwear. She went ahead into the lake submerging completely, a moment later I saw her head rising from the water. I slowly got in; the water was amazingly cold for a place so hot. Maybe because of the training I didn't notice that nights were very cold as well.

_Maaaaaaaaannn… this is the life… _(I Chuckled) _You look like the Loch ness Monster._

_What's a Loch Ness Monster?_

_It's a famous legend… I'm having my mind blown up right now._

She laughed at me and said… _You are all like "Oh geez, after all this time!"_

_Yeah, I wonder how many other gaps will get closed with you coming into my life._

_Stop filling my head with stuff; otherwise you'll worsen my hangover!_

_Only time takes effect on hangovers, try to relax, that helps too._

We spend a couple of hours there just talking, enjoying the cold water. The sun was at its highest point when Clyde and the others came by. He called us as we got in his sight.

-There you are, Pat!

-Hey guys! Come along! The water's amazing!

They dived in as soon as they got their clothes off, in exception of the underwear. When they got closer to where I was, I asked Clyde…

-How did you find us?

-We followed Furia's footprints.

-… Right.

We kept it the same way, just talking and relaxing in the cold water. Still, I couldn't wait for my ribs to be ok; I wanted so badly to give this lake a swim. We headed back to have lunch after around an hour. We rested at the porch before going to the lake again, while I talked with Clyde.

-I want to reach for my Vital Energy, how I do it?

-Already you want to mess with that? You aren't in the correct condition.

-I want to try at least a small trick; you said it was easy…

-Well… You must first have clear which hand you are going to use.

-Right one; done.

-Focus on that hand… now try to bring back what you felt the time you saw the smoke on your fist. It will be easier further on, but now it's your first conscious time using magic, this is the only way.

-Ok… - I followed Clyde's instructions. I opened my right hand towards the ceiling, in front of me and closed my eyes to concentrate even more. I revived the whole scene in my mind, every detail, each word. When I got to the smoky part, I felt a twitch on my back.

I opened my eyes and saw this ball of smoke slightly smaller than a baseball ball on my hand. It was the same color as Furia, dark-red wine-like. I smiled and joy laughed to see that. The others were looking at me.

-Holy shit! Wha… What do I do now?

-Vanish it.

-How?

-Cut the Vital Energy flow. It's something like… just stop thinking about it.

I took my attention away from the smoky ball and thought of something else. It was pretty difficult at first; I just couldn't believe it already. But, when I found where to force my attention to, the smoke dissipated away.

-I did it Clyde!

-Now how do you feel?

-Oddly tired for just sitting around. What other stuff can be done with magic?

-You got to learn well both how to summon and dismiss your magic before going any further.

I didn't press any further. I called Furia and we all parted to the lake and spend the evening there, just hanging out. I never stopped practicing magic, at least that little I knew. We spent the next 2 weeks like that, just relaxing and not talking anything related to training or work, except for me; I kept creating and dissipating the ball of smoke until I could do both actions as fluently like just snapping my fingers. I also discovered that I could make it more or less solid as I desired; the more solid and heavy it was, the more energy it consumed. Eventually, I managed to upgrade my ability and create easier and heavier balls.


	12. Becoming a Weapon

**Becoming a Weapon**

Those weeks passed so fast, suddenly I was back in training clothes, waiting for Clyde to explain me the basics about Vital Energy Usage. The others were ready as well. _Hopefully there aren't any more surprises like the last one_…

Furia was expectative. She, as a Dragon, was the only one who could see my magic, besides myself. We were both infinitely intrigued by how I would apply this in combat.

-Materialization… That's the basic rule about Magic. You will materialize any kind of non-mechanized object reachable for your imagination. From blunt weapons to sharp ones, even throwables.

I started with manipulation of the Vital Energy. Being able to bend it as I wanted was the most important lesson; that's why it was the first one. I learned how to generate a stick half a meter long, like a baton. Clyde had me hitting a tree with it several times a day. Impacts have effect on Vital Energy, they act against its solidity. If an impact is strong enough, it will break through the magical weapon and leave the user defenseless. The more I hit the tree, the more exhausted I got, but at an amazingly faster rate, though that didn't stop me from getting further. Once I could control a single baton with any of my hands, I began practicing with two batons, one in each hand. At a given time, I could use my limited knowledge of magic for combat. I fought against 2 guys armed as well with batons for I had the advantage of using invisible weapons.

Next came sharp weapons. Blades were harder to generate due to its main characteristic: The Edge. It took me several days to find the correct way of generating an edged object. But when I finally did, I learned how to sharpen it like a razor. Tricky detail about edged weapons was that they required much more energy to be effective. Blades are by far thinner than blunt objects; I had to put much more energy so they could be consistent and fairly unbreakable.

They set a bunch of logs for me to cut in half. When I finally got the handle of a single blade, I tried to double blade, but it was suicidal. A single blade required an amazing amount of continual energy investment. I generated a second one for a moment, and I couldn't stand up all of a sudden. Then I tried generating it with my left hand, that way I would have blade experience on both arms. But it doesn't work that way; the marked hand is the leading hand, it's stronger and more capable than the other hand in terms of Vital Energy Usage. Still, I did practiced blades with my left hand; suddenly switching blade with both of my hands would be very useful.

Also I discovered that I could combine both my hands on the same object and make it even stronger by grabbing it with both of my hands. That worked with both blunt and sharp weapons.

Next in line were throwables. These were a big deal, for they carried a lot of details involved. It wasn't just generating something, swinging an arm and there it goes. The first was having in mind how the throwable works: It won't go any further than the distance the objective is, even if the user fails. The further the objective is, the greater the energy required for the throw. If an user aims for an objective located further than the distance it can handle, runs the risk of killing itself, because once a throwable is created for an specific distance, the exact amount of Vital Energy will be invested even if the user lacks it. Also, for more solid projectiles, to make more damage, the more energy is invested in the throw as well. And last but not least, the throwable dissipates once it fulfills its purpose.

Every night I rode Furia; she always got to her limits and slightly further when possible, to enlarge them. Her stats improved a lot. Right after the vacations, she became seven months old. I noticed that I stopped checking her size. Still, I could assure she was almost unnoticeably bigger than last time I checked. Comparing to earlier times, her growing rate decreased to almost nothing. When I explained Clyde about my concern, he told me "7 months is what takes for dragons to match their growth and aging with their Rider, you won't notice her grow for a very long time now". I was happy to hear Furia wouldn't outgrow her saddle quickly, even though it was adjustable.

Once I mastered throwables, both normal balls, with many solid compositions and many distances. I discovered that I could throw as well edged objects, which I called Daggers. Throwables had another detail: once mastered the ability, it wasn't required a lot of physical strength for the arm swing. An experienced user would just use more energy to power up the throw. That way, even a soft and quick arm swing in the proper direction would be capable of delivering devastating effects.

Throwables had also another use: Air Combat. This one was all about coordination, the only wrong thing that could happen to an user was hitting its dragon's wings, fall to the ground and die. In this one I was completely on my own, for there was no way Clyde could instruct me up there. We modified the saddle with the addition of a belt that would hold me against the saddle by my waist. That way I could use both of my hands for combat. I started easy, with soft balls being thrown at random directions pointed out by Furia, that to recreate combat's randomness. There was also another way of attacking: Using the dragon's vision; but there was a risk with this: the sights of the rider and the dragon aren't calibrated to the same point. If a user is using its dragon's vision while attacking, it won't see the attack coming from itself and towards the objective, it will see the attack being generated at its dragon's back, where the rider is, to then go to the place it was aimed. Which means; there is no vision of the wings, they could be easily hit this way. Still, the dragon's vision is an amazing tool for picking targets in especial situations. If I wanted to become a true warrior, I had to master this as well. Besides, nothing could go wrong using soft balls until I got the handle of it. Only bad thing was that all I could practice my aiming with were ground targets. I would be in great trouble if facing a dogfight.

Right when I felt having reached the last lesson, Clyde threw me a new one: Healing. I couldn't believe it at first, not that anything I've been doing lately was believable; it just surprised me. Healing only worked with mechanical traumas: broken bones, cuts… that sort of stuff. It was impossible to cure an illness with Vital Energy. It also had two limitations: One, the graver the injury is, the more Vital Energy it'll require. Two, it was impossible for an user to heal himself. I practiced this ability with the guys after the following training fights.

There were some details, practical tricks that I discovered by myself, without Clyde's instructions. That was for sure a lesson: One does not simply teach everything about Vital Energy. It has its generalities and basics, but the true mastering of the art is all about how each user uses it, how every user understands it on its own way, even the same aspect. That's what mastering Vital Energy Usage means: Using it the way the user does, feeling it the way the user does… nobody else has voice there.

I won't forget the last training session… I was standing, facing the sky with my eyes closed. I could feel Furia's soft touch in my mind and her presence as well. They meant strength for me, not comfort, for she wouldn't interfere in the following events. Everything was silent but I knew it wouldn't last that way for long. Clyde and the four surrounded me; each of them armed with a baton. With an exhalation I took my look forward and opened my eyes. Act one: I crossed my arms with a quick motion, throwing two crossed balls that hit, each, Thomas and Oliver. Jack, who was in front of me, charged in my direction, as well as Clyde, on my rear right and Alan on my rear left. Act two: I blocked and countered Jack's attack with two hits of my baton; one to the knee and a second one to the head. Act three: Both Clyde and Alan attacked. Now armed with two batons I blocked and countered, hit Clyde on the stomach and Alan on the face. Act four: Both Thomas and Oliver recovered and rushed at me; I dived through an opening between Clyde and Alan and was now in the open. Act five: Thomas and Oliver closed on me from both sides; I took advantage of the now gained distance and threw fast balls at them. I didn't count them, I saw my targets being hit and didn't stop until they fell to the ground in pain. Act six: Jack went around and made a formation with Clyde and Alan. Jack was at the left side, Alan was in the middle and Clyde was at the right side. Act seven: They closed on me, but I created a gap between them by throwing a fast ball at Alan's face, making him retreat. I charged at target Clyde and made a quick row of attacks. Act eight: Target Jack tried attacking, but I kicked Clyde away and faced Jack, blocked his attack and countered with a quick row that left him on the ground. Act nine: Alan recovered and attacked, same ending. Act ten: Clyde, the last target standing, but grunting of pain along with the rest of the targets scattered over the ground, took a look around, dropped his baton, and said…

-There's no need to go further on. You've done well, Patrick.

I was panting; dissipated the batons and approached Clyde.

-Thanks.

-You've fully completed your training. It's an honor for me to shake a Dragon Rider's hand. – He said offering me his hand.

At first, reluctance crossed my mind, but I just rolled with it and shook his hand. Suddenly he twisted my wrist, making me lose balance. I tried to hit him with a baton with my other hand, but he caught my other wrist as well and twisted it, generating more pain on me. He jumped at me and hit my face with his head. Not loosening my hands even a little bit, he kicked my knee outwards and made me fall on the other one. Then his knee met my face a few times and then my stomach some others. He twisted my wrists even more and made me fall to my side. Trying to push myself up, I suddenly felt pressure on my throat, it was his knee.

-An adversary is trustable only when's completely dead. Remember that. Now get up.

I got back up, rubbing my throat.

-Damn… you got me good. I won't buy it next time.

-I know. Also, what I said was true… (Offers hand to me again) Dragon Rider.


	13. Knights of the Dragon Society

**Knights of the Dragon Society**

Since the end of the vacations, I spent five months training with Vital Energy before I was declared ready for the next step. I could endure almost any kind of combat; my ability with Vital Energy Usage made me a fearsome adversary even against the whole group. There was simply no more Clyde and his friends could teach me.

A reunion was planned for New Year's Eve. It was some kind of party, but not a crazy one. Clyde's grandmother would come to see Furia and me. She was the only one of three sisters who carried the story and told it to her children: Clyde's father and aunt. She was, at the moment, the eldest member of this blood chain. Both her kids carried the story, something that made her a proud leader. Every member of the Dragon Society in this blood chain would come to have a dinner, among other things.

That couple of weeks before the reunion were well deserved vacations for all of us. A few hours before the reunion, we were all doing arrangements. I was with Clyde and popped a conversation.

-What if a member of the Dragon Society met a Hunter and tried to tell the story to the kids? The whole resistance would be exposed…

-Yeah, that's why our members always research on their mates before saying a word about the story.

-How can a Hunter be identified?

-Remember they are all financed by the Vatican. They don't work; they just train their children and pay attention for any possible Rider. One just has to pay attention and match the pieces. Plus, there is a moment in which the Hunter reveals itself. We aren't very sure about this part, this is just what we believe, we didn't get any intel on this topic, but once that happens the hunter takes hold of his or her mate, whatever the case is, and there's no way to escape from a Hunter once that happens.

-Let me get this straight… Let's say I married, without knowing, a Hunter. She would be a regular girl for some time, then suddenly she would tell me that she has a secret job and…

-She would tell you once she gets pregnant. Remember they run by blood chains.

-Ok… so if everything goes well, I would marry her and have a child, then she tells me she is a Hunter and everything. Then if I tried to leave her or talk about this with someone else, she would simply kill me, keep the child and train it by her own?

-They can cover up everything. They have their backs covered by the rulers of the whole world. Luckily, if that ever happens, the first on reveal their identity are the Hunters, it takes far more time for a Dragon Society member to reveal itself on how to raise the children.

-Something intrigues me… How did the Dragon Society keep the story going on? They couldn't threaten of death their mates without any back up…

-It was easier for the male members to marry a submissive girl and educate the children their way.

-What about women? I assume it was harder for them to take control of a marriage.

-That's correct, that's why many just simply adopted.

-So your grandmother…

-Isn't really my grandmother. My father and my aunt aren't even brother and sister.

-Do you have cousins?

-Yeah, you've been training with them.

-Why did you tell me they were friends?

-We all knew since the beginning how our "relationship" worked. There's no need to hold to the delusion of being "blood related".

-…

-That isn't very traditional, but is the way we have made it this far. Let's talk about something else…

-Well then…

After an awkward silence, we got up a casual conversation and finished with the arrangements. Everything was ready for the reunion at nightfall. An hour later, Clyde's aunt arrived with his grandmother.

Everyone welcomed them at the house's porch. After greeting every one of their relatives, Clyde brought his grandmother to me. As they approached, I felt pretty nervous, making sure I was standing with the best posture.

-Grandma, this is Patrick Darst… the Dragon Rider.

-It's an honor for me to meet you, Ms. Barton. –I said bowing slightly in a sign of respect. A moment later, once I up righted myself, she put a hand on my shoulder and spoke.

-The honor is mine, young man. It gladdens me greatly to finally salute a Rider.

-I'll do my best to fulfill your expectatives, Ma'am.

-You already have… It takes a lot of strength and dedication to get where you stand.

-Thanks… I'd like to introduce you to my dragon.

-You don't know how close I was from asking you to do so.

She answered with a chuckle. I returned the gesture with a smile, turned around; she followed me through the house as we got outside by the back, where there was the long table we would dine at and Furia was lying down next to. Once she felt my presence, she got up, stretched and approached us.

-Her name is Furia.

Furia bowed and lowered her head and said… _It's an honor to meet someone as strong to carry the weight of the world for so long. _I told the elder the message, to what she answered…

-The honor is mine for meeting such a beautiful animal. – She said while slowly approaching Furia. She stood still for the elder to pet her side. Without turning to me, she said…

-Beautiful is a short word for what she is… -Then she turned to me and said... –A lot of stories will be told about you, Patrick Darst.

-About both of us. Whether it is turning Legends or turning forgotten, Furia and I will do it together.

-There's no greater value in a Rider than the love for its dragon. May I refer to her by her name?

The formality she spoke with amazed me. It also got into my nerves, I did my best to relax and keep my cool. This was the head of the Dragon Society, or at least the highest ranked member out of the only ones I knew, and she was asking me the permission to refer to my dragon by its name. In an indirect way, I owed everything to her; she would be able to refer to Furia by her name by default. It was very humble from her to ask me the permission, but it was my duty to grant it.

-You will honor us by doing so.

This time, she was the one who bowed a little. Finishing the gesture, she said…

-Thank you, Rider Patrick Darst… Now let's start the feast. Call Everyone.

-Right away, Ma'am.

I would have easily shouted out for the others to come by, but this was a special occasion. I headed back into the house and found everyone conversing. I felt too awkward to interrupt the traveling messages, so I approached Clyde and told him what his grandmother ordered me. He called out for everyone and we all headed outside to the table.

While everyone took sit at the table, I was called by Clyde's grandmother to sit by her side. Once everyone took sit, she stood up and spoke.

-We were all gathered here to memory this day. Tonight we celebrate the conclusion of thousands of years of looking… of waiting in the shadows for a Dragon Rider to born. Though the enemy was equipped with better resources, and manpower… We never lost hope, nor have the other families around the globe who still carry the weight of the story that has been inherited to us by our ancestors… (She made a pause then continued)… It falls upon this family the duty to take the Next Step. For it is a Privilege and a Responsibility. None of the members of this Family will know what it's like to grow old and don't be able to look anymore… none of us will know what it's like dying just leaving the fate of the Dragon Society in the new generation's hands. Let's make a moment of silence for all of the fellow members who do… (Everybody paid tribute by lowering their sights. After a few seconds, she slightly turned to me and put a hand on my shoulder)… I recognize you as a man of good, Patrick Darst. And Furia, an honorable Dragon. You have both proved to have the strength… the devotion… and the courage to stand by our side against The Government… I now name you and your dragon Official Members of the Dragon Society… Patrick Darst: The Rebel Rider! And Furia: Wings of Liberty! (Everyone stood up and applauded as I stood up as well, cleaning "Liquid Pride" off my eyes.)… I'll let you say a few words… (Everyone seated and looked at me)…

I was so nervous; this was completely unexpected for me; I was caught without the least preparation. But I had to do something; they were expectative, not saying anything would be exponentially more embarrassing than whatever I would say. I cleared my mind and let my ideas flow out the most gracefully I could.

-I… I can… I cannot express how proud and honored this makes me feel… and joyful, most of all… because… since the beginning of my life… I simply had no story... nothing to be part of… nothing to stand for… my life was less than worth living. It was when I found Furia's egg that I began to actually live… instead of just waiting to die… (I wiped a tear with my sleeve)… I am grateful to a lot of individuals who never lost faith in me… My dad, who let me keep Furia and supported me in innumerable ways…, Clyde, who knew how pathetic I was, and still never doubted me… Jack, Thomas, Alan and Oliver, who with every punch to my face and kick to my stomach made my strength grow further than I have ever imagined… Clyde's parents, who gave me sanctuary in their lands… And… to someone… who without her I wouldn't have done any of my achievements… someone who encouraged me to keep going on the many times I was on the verge of braking… the first someone who I could be my complete self with… that someone taught me to live before being born and made my life worth living once born… Furia. (She hummed as I felt both her and my joy. I had to wipe another tear with my sleeve)… And last but not least… maybe the one who I am most grateful to… My mother… who gave her life for me when I was born… (I looked at the sky)… Rest in peace… knowing that your sacrifice won't be a waste after all and will be remembered… (I lowered my sight to the table and kept silent for a few seconds)… Now members of the Dragon Society… Furia and I will do whatever is at our reach and more to reach the unreachable to fulfill our purpose in the Society… For it is a story we are now part of… And we will not give in until the end! (Furia roared as I finished the phrase, that elevated the energy of the message to a whole new level).

Everyone applauded again as I took seat. Clyde's grandmother said from her seat "Let the Feast begin!" Everyone got food on their plates and ate. There was a small cow tied down for Furia nearby, she figured out a new subtle way to kill it.

_That was a moving speech, Patrick._

_Thanks._

_Are you ok?_

_Yeah…_

_I feel you weird…_

_I'm in peace…_

_Peace?_

_It's weird to explain… I haven't felt so tranquil, so unworried, so… light in my whole life. It's like we are finally… somewhere._

_Where we truly belong… _She added.

_Exactly… -_I said, finishing.

During the dinner, I told the elder my story, and then she told me hers. After the dinner the whole family conversed and Furia rested nearby. At a moment, the adults plus Clyde's brothers went inside to talk, not about serious matters; they would have called me, Clyde, and the guys as well. Anyway, we were left alone with the beer… got rid of all formalities and drank, but not with the purpose of getting drunk, this time we drank lightly and casual chatted. Suddenly, Clyde raised his beer…

-Seven months! Seven months of training and preparations are being successfully concluded tonight! You and Furia are part of the Dragon Society now!

They all raised their beers and shouted. I did a moment later. Furia roared… Also a warm surprise came out of her throat with that roar. Luckily she was facing the sky… and was as amazed as I was. Clyde rushed at me, with a pretty joyous tone, almost screaming at me, he said…

-That's her first Fire Exhalation! I can't believe it!

She did it again, only this time she held the flame for a second. We all shouted with joy as Furia played with fire. Few moments later, she told me…

_I think I got the handle of this, but now I'm tired._

I told Clyde about. We spend the next minutes talking about fire exhalation. It seems that dragons are able to exhale fire when they reach the age of one year. Just like magic, this could only be triggered by instinct or by accident. I felt hugely relieved for Furia discovering it by accident; who would know what kind of sick situation Clyde would have put her to force it out… Also, the power of the flame along with its reach distance could be improved with specific exercises. Then we went back to drink and have fun.

Around an hour later, Clyde's Grandmother came by with a last message.

-Peace falls on me, knowing the fate of the Dragon Society will fall on capable hands and claws.

-We won't let you down. –Snapped Clyde.

-I know you won't, none of you. I cannot be a prouder Mentor…

She hugged each one of them. When she got to me she said…

-It started with a dark dragon rider and will end because of a dark dragon rider…What are the odds?

-I think I don't believe in "odds" anymore…

She smiled and proceeded…

-Never do… for the decision of making the impossible happen… falls on each of us.

She hugged me, bid farewell to me and Furia, then left.

We talked and drank more for a while. We were tired from all the day preparing for the event and all how it went through. We would sleep well knowing it was an immeasurable success... Suddenly I heard a voice in my head…

_Let's go for a flight…_

I bid farewell to them, then looked for Furia's saddle and my flying goggles. Once the last strap was tightened, I climbed onto her, strapped myself up and we took off.

We were flying at a soft pace. Maneuvering like a falling feather, gracefully and without rush. After a while, I told her… _Let me fall…_ She went upwards to gain more altitude. Once again stable, she twisted as I took off the safety straps. When I was ready, I let myself go. Alike last time, I was completely in control, instead of being a falling scribble.

The stars were at my front, the earth at my back, my hands crossed behind my head as I rested on the air. I felt the wind on the entire back of my body, numbing my hearing. If it wasn't because of my open eyes, I wouldn't have been connected to the world. I don't know how long I was there, falling; I just know it was long enough for me to relive my life.

Then I found nothing to think more of; like waking from a finished dream. I slightly tilted myself to see the earth closing in. I didn't mind at all; if Furia hasn't come for me then am still at a safe height. A few moments later it bugged me again, so I called for her. _Furia… I think I'm done, come pick me… _I didn't get anything back, which got really into my nerves. _Furia?... cut it off already, just come and pick me._ I looked to the ground again, getting closer and closer. _Furia… Furia!… Seriously?_

All of a sudden, I was tackled. I was embraced by Furia's claws.

_Damn it's hard to make you panic!_

_You care for me too much to let me fall…_

_Oh really?_

As she said it, she opened her claws, leaving me to gravity's wrong intentions.

_Holy shit! _I tried to grab on to something frantically, but she got hold of me again.

In the middle of laughter she said… _You should have seen your face! It was priceless! _ I was laughing as well. When I recovered, I said… _You crazy lizard! Get me close to the saddle…_

She got me closer to her side and helped me get on. Once strapped up, we just simply flew forward, curving around when getting too far. Suddenly, she spoke…

_It all becomes real now…_

_What do you mean?_

_No more training or preparations… We are now Warriors._

_Yeah we are. Knights of the Dragon Society._


	14. Pain Redefined

**Pain Redefined**

I woke up the next morning… got down from Furia´s back and stretched. I heard her on the same deeds.

_Mornings Furia…_

_Mornings Pat... what are you going to do?_

_Not sure; have some breakfast first of all… I'll see if I meet the others…_

_I'm ma stay here, say them mornings for me._

_Alright_

She went back to the ground and I headed to the house. I was for sure the first one getting up; Clyde always got me up if he woke up first. When I entered the house, it was empty. I headed to the kitchen and saw Clyde's mother.

-Mornings, Ma'am.

-Mornings, Patrick… looking for some breakfast?

That was a sweet approach from someone who marginalized me… until now, by the looks of it. She sensed my blankness then lowered her sight. With a soft tone, she spoke.

-I'm sorry for all this time… We should all have welcomed you with open arms…

-I understand why you didn't…It's not a big deal…

-Yes it is. That same foolishness was the reason it all happened, it had nothing to do with Dark Dragon Riders. You made me feel so guilty when you expressed your thanks to me and my husband last night. I hope you can forgive us…

That wasn't by far my intention. But well, I smiled and said… -I forgive you.

-Thanks… let me prepare you breakfast; it's the least I can do now.

-I really appreciate it, thanks… Have you seen Clyde and the others?

-They are upstairs, still sleeping.

They arranged themselves all over the second floor, sleeping on foldable beds; it was that way since they came by. I wasn't sure about waking them up. They woke me up to train or talk an important matter… mostly to train, but at least it was to do something, and at the moment I didn't even know what to do myself. So I decided to let them be.

-I'll let them sleep.

-Would you mind telling me how you found your dragon?

-Of course not.

So I told her my story. We commented sudden aspects. It was a nice chat, even long enough for me to finish breakfast. I thanked again for the food and headed outside. I got out of the porch and weakly kicked a rock, then looked around. I was so bored… so I began toying with Vital Energy. And an idea ran through my mind… _What if I invented a weapon? Or generated something far from the regular weapons I had already mastered?_

After deliberating for a while, I managed to pick the weapon I would create from scratch using only Vital Energy. The hardest part was the handle; it had solid properties never used by me… the properties of Rope. Clyde and the guys woke up one by one, eventually. I had to explain what I was on to almost each of them.

After around an hour of trying and failing, I got it to work. A flexible, strong and moderately heavy chainlike weapon was the result. Before starting with step two, I did some combat moves with it… like hitting some objects until I learned how to aim properly. Then I was ready for step two; the end of the chain would have a blade. That meant I had to generate a mixed weapon, a chain attached to a blade; easy deed when talking about forging it, but it was a great challenge when talking about Vital Energy. Lunch time arrived without me getting the least progress.

Clyde summoned me and the guys to eat outside, next to Furia. We weren't trainees anymore, Furia and I had now the right of voice in important matters. We would talk about The Next Step.

The Dragon Society had a simple, flexible and completely effective course of action: Step One, Find an egg or someone who had one, whatever came easier or earlier; Step Two, Train the Rider; Step Three, Get Eggs in Bermuda Triangle; Step Four, Train every Newborn Rider; Step Five; All-out Assault to the Government's Headquarters. Five simple steps that would be followed by whatever blood chain which managed to get to Step One.

The bad thing was that we needed a lot of impossible to find elements just to get started. There was no way for us to take Furia across the Ocean to the Bermuda Triangle. An idea popped up: Sabotage. We could just start killing Hunters until the Government decided to retrieve them all from the state, luckily from the whole United States; that way the possibilities of people finding their eggs would raise. That if the Government decided to retreat, they would just send more men, until they find us and kill us all. Or we could just fly during the day for other members of the Dragon Society to see us; that would make them take action. But the Hunters would do as well, same results. The only thing that had kept us alive this far was "Inexistence". Any slip would get us killed, therefore, before any movement made, we had to be prepared for the Government's answer.

_What about sympathizing with someone of power? We would get a transport along with some protection. _Said Furia

It was unexpected, yet clever. I replayed the idea to the others. They seemed shocked as well, but not for the matter of talking with someone else, but for the possibilities of that person being part of The Government. That would be a total disaster; we could bring a whole country against the seven of us. We gave the idea a deep thought. In the end it clearly was a good idea. It was risky as hell, but it was the best option we had.

We decided not to go to the President of the United States; we were enough out of our minds to even try to approach a political leader in such a situation. We discarded Levelland's City Manager because that's where our hiding place was. We had to approach the Manager of one of the nearby cities.

We could go north to Amarillo or south to Midland. There were also closer options such as Clovis and Hobbs; north west and south west respectively. There was also Abilene to the far south east. We decided for Hobbs because it was surrounded by other cities in exception of one direction: north east. We would get there without meeting any other city; there were just a bunch of small towns that would serve as decoys. Its surrounding cities served us as decoys as well. If the City Manager was part of The Government, we would have to flee immediately; we would disappear in the night. They would first look for us locally… but by the time they realize we are outsiders; we would be in the safety of Clyde's lands back in Levelland. And they would then use more time to figure out where we came from.

Where to go arranged, now we had to decide how to go. We couldn't just arrive with a huge dragon like "We come in peace, with weird as fuck story about the world, we plead for thy assistance". An analysis of our available resources: there were six of us, one was a Magic user, the rest was armed with hunting weapons such as shotguns and bolt action rifles; not very effective in combat, but well… a Dragon and a pickup truck. It wasn't much if something went wrong. We decided to avoid any confrontation; flee would be our only choice there.

In the end we wouldn't use all of the previously mentioned resources. The less people involved, the less would be lost in a worst case scenario. Only three of us, plus Furia, would go. Clyde would go with Thomas on the pickup, while I would go with Furia. They would depart at late afternoon, that way they would arrive by evening. Furia and I would depart at evening; it wouldn't take us longer than an hour to get there by air.

Having planned everything by nightfall was a success. Funny thing was that we were actually going to suddenly appear and ask for help.

We waited for around a month for Furia to master her Fire Exhalation. She could now burn something eight meters away. She couldn't hold a flame for longer than a couple of seconds, any longer would calcinate her throat from the inside. She had to wait a bit to be able of exhaling more fire without hurting herself. Having in mind that condition, the total time she could exhale fire until complete exhaustion was now by far bigger than when she started; making her a Living Flamethrower.

I myself didn't waste time either; I managed to generate a blade at the end of the chain. It was like Multitasking, it required a lot of energy and concentration. I could use it momentarily, so far. I called it The Chain Blade and further mastering will have to wait.

Day Zero arrived, at the beginning of February. That morning I went to hunt with Furia, she had to be already fed and ready for everything before the night. Who knows what sort of dangers we would face…

_Welcome to ground hunting 101… _I told her.

_What could you possibly know about hunting? You always used a rifle…_

_Sky Hunter, through my eyes you would starve to death by the looks of it… You don't know the first thing about ground hunting, now follow me…_

_And what's the first thing to know about ground hunting?_

"_Be quick enough to surprise and Strong enough to kill"_

_We have got a bunch of problems then…_

_What do you mean?_

_Unless they are completely blind, they would see me a mile away._

_Maybe, but they won't me._

_But you haven't got the size to kill a fully grown cow._

_And you do… This makes you the killer and me, the runner._

_I can see where this will go…_

We saw the herd at the lake; it was too open for us to go any closer. We would take advantage of the hill we were at.

_This is the plan: You'll stay here, crouched and without making the smallest movement. I'll round up the lake and scare the herd this way. Then you know what to do._

I trotted around the lake and made the herd run towards Furia's hiding place. She jumped from behind the hill and bit a cow on its back. She dragged it away and with a twist of her head, she snapped broken the animal's spine, pulled it outside and ripped it completely from the corpse along with the head to then swallow it whole.

_I can't believe you did it! We actually hunted something! You do know your business…_

She said with joy and amazement. While she ate we talked about random stuff, most of it being hunting topics. We rested a bit, and then headed back to the house. At noon, the guys and I had lunch. At afternoon we had a last reunion to review the plan. Being all set and checked, we went to the pickup. Without any more to say, Clyde and Thomas parted away and eventually got lost in the distance. A weird coolness ran through my spine.

_Soon will be our turn… _said Furia.

Tension could be felt in the air; Jack, Alan, Oliver and I were sitting on the porch talking and waiting for the sun to go down. When it did, it felt like it was just a second, when we actually waited for a couple of hours. I saddled Furia and got ready myself. The guys wished us the best of lucks and we took off.

We did a quick stop on the lake for her to drink water and went on. Around an hour later, we arrived to Hobbs' outskirts, where Clyde and Thomas were waiting for us. After Furia located them, we landed. I got off her and got in the pickup, then Thomas got us to the main road and entered Hobbs while she would wait for new instructions. The point of this was that if there were any Hunters involved, we couldn't allow them to see the dragon and even less who's the Rider.

Thomas dropped us a few blocks from the City Hall and headed back to Levelland. Clyde and I were now on our own; once again, we could only rely on Furia. We walked silently until we arrived. The entrance didn't worry us; we didn't carry anything with us but our clothes, without mentioning the pair of gloves each of us wore. Making me the only armed one of the two of us.

It was early night, so the City Manager would still be there. There was a bunch of armed personnel; it gave me chills to think something would go wrong… _I would have to kill all these innocent people if not Hunters_. We approached a receptionist. Clyde did the talking while I kept my guard up a few meters away from him, attentive for any suspicious activity. He then approached me and I asked him…

-What happened?

-One does not simply meet up with the City Manager.

-So this was a whole waste…

-Not at all, I got her to put me on a line with him. I told him this could be of a lot of profit for the City of Hobbs and that we didn't asked a lot, we just wanted to be heard and stuff like that. This was an opportunity for him to change the whole world I told him. We have to wait a few minutes though.

-Wasn't that too easy? -I said, worried.

-It bugs me as well… We'll have to put keen eye on every of his moves.

-On everybody's moves…

We walked around as time passed. A few minutes later from the conversation, a tall guy in a tuxedo approached us. And said…

-The City Manager is ready to see you, but first I have to check you up.

I stepped aside and the guy searched Clyde patting him around his body. Then it was my turn; I've been searched before, but this guy did it so rigorously that it made me feel uncomfortable when he went to my groin. Finally done with the revising, the guy got upright and said…

-Good, now follow me.

I was somehow exited; this could actually mean the answer to our problems. The guy took us through a long hallway until we reached an elevator. The City Manager's office was on the top floor. There would be guards for sure on each floor, something that gave me goose bumps just to think on something going wrong. We entered the elevator.

When the elevator's doors slid open, there was before us a fancy corridor. We went out and walked it all through, at a fast pace. There were many paintings and pieces of art all along, but the only thing that I managed to notice solidly were the guards that followed us just with their eyes, without making a single movement.

We finally made it to the end of the hallway. There was a pair of doors with awesome decorations. The guy opened one and let us in, then he closed the door behind us. This remembered me a lot of the time I was in the Hygiene Facility back in Lubbock. I only hoped for this guy to be nice and most of all… not to be related to The Government.

There was this man, standing in front of a window, looking outside. At the moment the door shut closed, the man turned around and faced us. He fixed his eyes on me and a Dellinger pistol popped from his sleeve. I generated a blade to kill him but it was too late for me. Clyde jumped in front of me and took the 2 bullets in his chest. With a quick movement I severed the hand which he was holding the gun with and then stabbed his stomach all the way through. When I dissipated the smoky sword, he crumbled to the floor and I headed to Clyde.

- Clyde! Hang on man!

-the door! -He shouted.

I turned to the doors and saw one getting open. It was the guard who brought us here. I jumped and stabbed his head midair, kicked the body out and locked the doors. Then pushed a sofa there was in front of them.

There was suddenly a rain of bullets through the door. I crawled to Clyde, took off my shirt and wrapped it on his chest, putting pressure on the wounds.

-We are going to make it out of here, you hear me!?

He was coughing blood.

-Save yours…(cough)…self!

-Don't talk!

I looked at the City Manager; he was dead. The bullet rain had stopped… it was a matter of time until they popped the doors open with an explosive or something. I took my gloves off, reached for my energy and prepared for everything. But I was surprised… there was more shooting, but not to this room; they were like shooting themselves up. I readied a dagger with each hand and approached the doors. A man said…

-Dragon Society…

Only members knew of that name, besides, I didn't have much time if I wanted to get Clyde out of here. I moved the sofa away and let the guy in.

-Follow me, Rider, hurry!

-How did you know? -I said getting Clyde up to my shoulder.

-I'm from the surveillance room, I saw you using Vital Energy. Now come!

I followed him out of the office and through the hall. He took Clyde from me while saying "My rifle is out; kill whoever comes from the elevator, you hear me!?" I nodded readying a pair of daggers. With a lot of practice I had learned how to throw them really fast, one after another.

The doors of the elevator opened, but I was ready. The first face I saw didn't last a single second alive because of my dagger. One by one the response team fell all, due to my sharp rain. The amount of energy I used left me panting.

We entered the elevator, Clyde was still holding on. I asked the guy…

-They will be waiting for us on each level, are you sure about this?

He answered me while taking a card out of his pocket and introducing it in a panel.

-Not on every level, there's a secret one only the Security Staff has knowledge of. We will use it to escape, just like would do the City Manager if the City Hall was under attack.

The elevator went down nonstop because of the priority card my new comrade used. When we came out, there were a lot of lights pointing at us; soldiers yelling "Drop to the ground! Now, or we'll open fire!"

I have never felt this scared… _Will this be my end? All I went through, just to become a terrorist?_

-We are trapped… -He said

-No we aren't…

I pushed the guy to the ground and dropped myself along. Hell was brought to Earth as Furia bathed with fire the troops in front of us. With each pass, she brought up new screams of pain. She also burned some nearby rooftops and flamed down a helicopter that had a spotlight on us. When the three of us were the only souls around, she landed right in front of us.

_There were armed men on the rooftops, I didn't took any risks and killed them along with the flying thing. Are you ok, Patrick?_

_I am, but Clyde needs help quickly._

-My family has a cargo ship in Corpus Christy's harbor. Call this number once you are in town. –He said putting a piece of paper in my pocket.

Without questioning, I strapped Clyde to the saddle and then got up myself. Furia took off. A few minutes later we were over the outskirts, I told her to land. Once she did, I unstrapped Clyde and laid him on the ground. Clyde felt incredibly heavier this time. I had never thrown so many daggers; I was damn tired. But I had to try to heal him. He was panting and pale, he would die at any moment.

I knelt beside him and pressed my right hand on his chest and got ready. Suddenly he pushed my hand away. Interrupted by grunts of pain, he said…

-What the fuck are you doing!?

-I need to heal you!

-Don't be a fool!… you would kill yourself trying to heal me after all you did.

-No… Noooo! Clyde! Let me at least try!

-To then what!? I would kill myself if you died just because of healing me!

I looked at Furia… _There has to be a way… there has to!_

I felt pure sadness on her answer… _This time there isn't…_

Tears born on my eyes; I cross-held his right hand.

-I won't forget you…

-I know you won't.

He made a signal to Furia with his left hand. She came closer and lowered her head so he could reach her side and pet her…

-Furia… Take care of this asshole …

She hummed and nodded. Then looking at me, he said…

-Patrick… Thank you… for giving me the opportunity to live…

-Always… Brother…

He didn't say anything more. Moments later, his hand softened and his breathing stopped. I put his hands stretched by his sides, like he was just resting there. I stood up and looked at Furia. At a moment, I couldn't hold our combined sorrow and cried… like a little kid I hugged her forearm and cried while she patted my back with her nose. I didn't do the least effort to hold myself… I just let it out. I let it all out… just like I would do with The Government.

Since that moment forth… This was Personal.


	15. Only Those who call the Shots

**Only Those who call the Shots**

**won't end up among the Dead and Lame**

Nor Furia or I said a single word during the flight to Clyde's lands. The body was strapped to the saddle; we were taking it with ourselves to give him the deserved burial. I couldn't believe he was dead, that he gave his life for me. I felt somehow responsible for this. I couldn't imagine myself arriving with a dead body, with a corpse that just a couple of hours before was a friend, a son, a brother.

When we arrived, the guys and Clyde's family received us with joy and cheers… until we got close enough for them to see Clyde. The mother rushed in… crying… and hugged her son. I got off Furia, unstrapped the body off and faced them. They were expectative, looking at me without blinking. The lump in my throat was unbreakable. I opened my mouth slightly to say something…

-It… Ambush… the City Manager…

Thomas approached me and put a hand on my shoulder as he said…

-You don't have to do this now…

I took a deep breath and nodded, my eyes getting watery… He spoke again…

-Go take a bath… you can tell us what happened later.

-I'm sorry…

-This wasn't your fault…

This time I forced my words out. Someone had died because of me; I wouldn't simply accept their understanding just because I was a Rider.

-The Government knew me… The City Manager tried to shoot me at the second he saw me… I should have thought of this long before.

-And you would be accompanying him anyway because of a simple reason; the only way to get close to a politician is unarmed. If you hadn't gone, anyone who occupied your place would be dead or worse, caught along with Clyde. Now go take a bath… you are very shocked… We'll talk about this when you are ready.

It made sense... but it still didn't take away this feeling of guilt on my back. I unsaddled Furia and took a shower while they wrapped Clyde's body with blankets and put it on his own bed. I finished, put some clothes on and went outside next to Furia. She was lying on the ground and arched her neck up as I approached. I pet her and turned to everyone. I cleared my mind and began with the story.

When I finished, Clyde's family went inside to calm his mother. While me and the guys stayed outside. We deliberated about following the lead the security guard told me. He helped us get out and was a member of the Society; we didn't have anything more to say about it. We would wait until after the burial to start the planning for the trip. We all suffered from this loss; still, we had a mission to accomplish and there was no time for mourning. A political leader was dead; we didn't know how this would develop… for the whole world, nothing more than a successful terrorist attack; for The Government… a threat? a coincidence? a reason to take action? And if in that case, what kind of action would they take?

Next morning was silent. Clyde's Grandmother was contacted and came by for her grandson's burial at early noon; along with Clyde's Aunt. I told them the story of his death, and then we proceeded to the burial. Each of us said something thoughtful for Clyde. His brothers carried the body to the grave the guys and I made behind the house. While he was being lowered down into it, I thought… _I won't let your death end up in vain… I will fulfill this debt by finishing what you started… even if it's the last thing I do._

_Even if it's the last thing WE do… I will bring Hell upon them for this!_ -Furia added, letting out a puff of black smoke from her nostrils.

Once the body was in the grave, the guys and I buried it. We stuck a tombstone behind the head-end of the grave. It had a carved message…

"Here lies Clyde Barton

Carrier of History, Trainer of Heroes

Lived for his Family… Died for his Friends

Rest in Peace

For your cause will never be forgotten"


	16. Under the same Shadow

**Under the same Shadow**

A few days later we had it all set up: Jack, Thomas, Alan and Oliver would go in the pickup; it was loaded with extra fuel, food and water for a nonstop trip until Corpus Christy. Once they arrived, they would call the number the security guard gave me to find him. That way they would be ready for our (Furia and I) arrival a few days later, right then I would call them with Jack's phone. Clyde destroyed mine before leaving Lubbock. It was a long trip, Furia couldn't fly by day and she couldn't fly a whole night nonstop.

There was the matter of Furia's alimentation during the trip, we wouldn't hunt from farms, The Government could track missing cattle and figure out where we are heading. She would eat only wild fauna, if found. We had to be extra careful, now that we made a huge move with Hobbs' City Manager killed.

Furia and I went hunting in the morning of the day of our departure, while the others departed at that day's first light. Once she finished, we went to the lake.

_What do you know about this Bermuda Triangle?_

_That wouldn't be much… Its corners are the tip of Miami, Florida; The island of Puerto Rico and the Bermuda Island. It's famous because anything which gets through it never comes out. Ships, planes… all suddenly gone with no trail of what happened…_

She chuckled and said… _And that's exactly where we are heading into!_

_It always marveled me… it was so intriguing… What's in there? What happens to the ships and planes? Was an Omni-eating monster the responsible? A Black Hole? Is there the secret of the universe and everything!?... Now I can say backed by all truth that there is a couple of dragons protecting millions of eggs. I know this since the day you met Clyde, when he told me the truth about everything. And I still can't believe I KNOW it._

Having said his name, I felt a taste of loneliness remembering I wouldn't see him again.

_I miss him too. _ She said fixing an eye on me; her warm expression helped me recover.

We spent the rest of the day walking, talking and reviewing aspects of the trip. When light began to die, I saddled Furia, bid farewell to Clyde's mother; his father and brothers were still cold at me. I put on my flying goggles, climbed onto Furia, strapped up and took off.

Slightly over an hour later and flying at a soft pace, she was tired. We landed far away from any sign of civilization so she could rest well. We walked to a lake Furia saw before landing, not very far from where we landed. I unsaddled her and we rested there and listened to music. After a while, I turned off the music player to save battery. Then we conversed…

We skipped from topic to topic for a couple of hours until Furia felt like flying again. I got everything ready and got on the move again. An hour later she was done for the night. I unsaddled her and we both went to sleep. At first light I saddled her and continued the journey by foot. In the way I trained with Vital Energy. I practiced most of the time with the Chain Blade, another part of the time I used it to create a stronger throwable. If we were going to fight a Dragon, I couldn't rely on Furia doing all the work, I had to find the way of making damage as well: I needed to create something capable of penetrating Dagon scales. The rest of the time I spent it being carried by Furia when I was too tired to even stand.

_It's a shame we can't fly during the day… daylight fills me with energy._Furia commented.

By noon we arrived to a pretty hilly zone, we couldn't reach much long distance view on any direction. If it wasn't because of the compass and the map we had, we would get lost at any moment. At least it protected us from being seen from the distance… yet that worked both ways… we wouldn't notice danger from the distance.

It began like a buzz in the air… without any direction, because of the hills around us. We stood still. I readied a pair of Daggers while Furia prepared to exhale fire. Suddenly, around fifteen meters away from us, a 4x4 vehicle climbed the hill at our right at high speed and with very loud music heading towards us. It braked hardly and after sliding around a meter on the dirt, it came to a stop and the music was shut. I crossed my arms, my hands ending at my shoulders, and got ready to rain blades at them. Furia slightly lowered her head and showed her fangs in a furious expression. Then there was arguing inside the truck. I could hear the voices, but didn't catch what they were saying.

Suddenly they opened the doors and four guys went out, taking their sunglasses off. We didn't do a thing, Furia and I just waited for them to pull the next card. One of them franticly went back to the truck and picked up a shotgun. When he came out he screamed "Get down!" and pumped the shotgun. I began the swing, Furia ignited a flame, but one of the other guys jumped onto the Hunter and shoved him to the ground, taking the shotgun from him.

My blade was already powered for the throw, so I continued it to the sky. The Hunter was too far from us for Furia to reach him with her fire; she exhaled it as a distraction to cover me.

_They aren't all Hunters… _Said Furia; with impression in her voice.

_An opportunity we won't waste, we might get him to spill something out…_

-I'm not armed! I will approach! -I yelled at them as we began to walk.

The Hunter still tried to get the shotgun from his friend but the others were backing him up. He ended up trying to explain himself to them. Furia and I were just eight meters away when he said…

-I can't explain everything; he is going to kill us all!

-I'm not going to kill anybody! –I said, still walking. I stopped at five meters from them. The Hunter turned and pointed me with his finger and said…

-Bullshit! You will slay us all like you did with Hobbs' City Manager!

-I went there peacefully and he drew on me. He also killed my friend.

-You are EVIL! You Riders won't rule the world! If I don't stop you, someone else will!

-I don't…

I completely lost track of what was happening. _What is this guy talking about? They are who already rule the world… Why did he call me "evil"? Don't they prevent people from finding Dragon Eggs to keep the world working as they please?_

Then one of the others intervened.

-Could you two at least explain what the hell is going on?

Then the Hunter spoke…

-Dragons are Demons! They possess people who find their eggs to do as they please! The only way to protect humanity is to find the eggs and send them away because they are indestructible, and if an egg is found that person must be killed if the egg had already hatched! I belong to a secret society that has protected the world for centuries from these monsters! My father taught me, and he was taught by his father and so on…

I didn't shut him up because it was so twisted what he said that I wanted to hear where it ended. Then I said…

-That's not true. Dragons are our friends. Each human is destined to find a dragon egg to then raise the dragon and live life like it was never imagined. Your Society's objective is to prevent people from finding their dragons so they can't find true happiness and will never open their eyes from this sick world YOU have created.

-And you got this from!? That Black Demon told this to you!? Snap out of its grasp!

-No, it was taught to me by a close friend of mine, who didn't even had a dragon, and won't ever know what it is like to have one thanks to you.

-That's impossible! Only the members of my society know about these deeds!

-What you have been taught is wrong and I can prove it.

-How!?

-To start, you are all alive. You, who tried to shoot me, are still alive and unharmed. And I encourage your friends to touch my dragon with the guarantee of not getting the tiniest wound. Who goes first?- I said as I turned to the three guys standing by his side.

There was a moment of silence, then one of the guys said…

-Fuck this shit! If this ends it, I will touch the dragon, and if I am killed then you'll kill this dude.- he said handing the shotgun to another of his friends. He proceeded to aim at me.

_I'm not comfortable with this stranger getting close to me._

_I know, but this is a special situation; plus he won't have time to try anything._

_You better be right…_

I covertly readied a pair of daggers and paid pure attention to his moves as he got closer. When he was close enough, he stretched his arm and touched Furia's side of her head.

_This is one brave none-nuts… _Commented Furia.

-This is amazing… - he uttered.

Furia arched her neck up, getting her head out of the guy's reach, also startling him a bit.

-My name is Patrick Darst and this is my dragon, her name is Furia, and she is not evil.

-No… No… This… this can't be… You are trying to fool us! - Said the Hunter.

-No I'm not.

Suddenly the guy with the shotgun hit him with the back of the gun in the stomach and said.

-Shut the fuck up Wesley, for Christ's sake! He at least is proving his point!

-Can I touch the dragon?- Said the one in the back, who hasn't made a single move since this all started.

-Of course. – I said.

With the same daggers ready, I paid attention to this new guy approaching Furia. He touched her arm for a moment; then she moved slightly away from him. The one who made the first contact with Furia approached me and offered his hand. As I dissipated the blades, he said…

-The name's Owen, you seem to be the right one to answer what is going on here.

-The truth's long and the sun burns. Do you have a carp or something to stay underneath? –I said shaking his hand.

-Yeah, but your dragon won't fit…

-Don't mind her, she likes the sun.

We all opened the carp and the camping chairs they got. They offered me beverages but I rejected them. I knew it was an exaggerated security measure, but I couldn't take more risks than which I have already, so I drank from my own supplies. I began by telling them the whole story of the world and ended with how I found Furia. We spent the whole afternoon there, talking and commenting about the world. I saved to myself the details of where I was heading and what I was going to do exactly.

Wesley didn't participate at all in the conversation. He just looked at me with horror.

-Sorry for hitting you with the shotgun Wes… are you ok? -said the one who still carried the gun, but not aiming at me, he had it resting on his shoulder.

-I'm fine… I just can´t believe it… my whole life is a lie… all this time doing what I thought was right and it seems to be a lie… The others must know of this… -Said the hunter with a determinate tone.

I quickly intervened.

-Hold it there, buddy. We don't know how the ones behind all this would react. By doing that, you could ruin my whole operation.

-Then what should I do? Sit and wait?

-That exactly.

-I won't let my comrades' lives get wasted like all that already have!

-Neither will I! A lot of people have died to find me… To keep me alive and get as far as I am to fail now! (Sigh)… I assure you, the truth will be revealed… to the whole world… but at the right moment, OK?

-We will all get a dragon? – asked Owen.

-If I succeed yes; that's a promise.

-Then I want to go with you, as you said, all our lives are bullshit. I want to be part of what you are going to do.

-Sadly I cannot let you come with me. Yet I will think first on you guys once this is over.

-Have this then…

He wrote on a piece of paper all his contact information.

-Contact us even if you fail, I wouldn't like to die on the waiting.

-I will contact you, no matter what. But I got to warn you; I don't know how this will develop, nor how long will this take. Plus you can't tell anyone about this, anyone. As you have discovered today, you will never know who can be a Hunter.

-A Hunter? - Said Wesley, surprised.

-Sorry, but that's how we refer to your people.

-Don't be sorry, "Hunter" is a fit title due to what we do. We call ourselves "Guardians", even though we guard nothing.

-Can I ask you something Wesley? -I said.

-What?

-How do Guardians create a family, to then inherit the story to the children?

-What do you mean?

-Isn't there a protocol for the case the mate not accepting the Guardians' ways?

-No…

-What if they try to talk with someone else about the secret?

-It hadn't happened… We offer our mates a completely financed life. We free them from the world's necessities such as working. No one would say no to that, so we just raise the kids. Why do you ask?

-Oh… nothing… just mere curiosity.

We all continued talking and getting to know each other. When night arrived, we wished each other a good trip as Furia and I took off. At first we didn't head to Corpus Christy in fear of being followed, later we recovered our track and flew straight.

_What an afternoon… you did manage him to spill something out… _acknowledged Furia.

_Real far from what I expected… They aren't evil, they are like us… just told what's right and with enough hope and determination to believe it and carry it as a duty._

_Just that we are the ones who carry the true story._

_Yeah… which means… they were deceived centuries ago, their blood chains have been telling lies since…_

_The Great Massacre… _Furia said completing the sentence.

_Of course…There is no way to force a whole generation to carry a mission they don't share objectives with, just as simple as the son who doesn't want to be the same profession the father is. They lied to their sons; they modified the story for them to be a mission. A mission where the world's sake rest on their hands… Who would say no to that?_

_And while being already financed by the Vatican, they wouldn't get involved with the world. Not having to go to school, nor college, nor having to work, it isn't just a mission, it's a blessing!_

_One nobody would turn against… that's why it was so difficult for the Dragon Society to assure a child would carry the story. Their child's backs weren't covered; they had to learn both stories, the one they teach you in school and the one told by your parents. Having the knowledge of multiple possibilities… they had the opportunity of making a choice._

_To carry the weight of the world or fall for the illusion of free will this world offer humanity._

Two nights later, from our encounter with the "Guardian", Furia and I arrived to the outskirts of Corpus Christy. By that time, I got better with the Chain Blade and had well knowledge of the new throwable; it was heavier, stronger, with way deeper penetration and damage, and it required much more energy; I called it The Spear. I proceeded to call the guys and waited for their call back. They would now ready the signal which they would guide us with to the safe landing zone. Once I got the call, we took off towards the harbor.

_Flashing light! _Furia snapped; and with unspoken agreement, we flew towards it.

Waiting for us were the guys and the security guard. They greeted us as we landed. I was so glad to finally meet a known face. Then the security guard introduced himself…

-Didn't had the opportunity of telling you my name, it's James Alison.

I shook his hand while answering.

-Patrick Darst, Furia (I pointed at her)… How did you manage to escape Hobbs?

-All the data they have about me is fake. I came here that very same night. They will never find me. Your friends told me about your partner back then… I'm sorry. We will make those damn Hunters and the whole Government pay.

-Thanks… Speaking of Hunters…

I told them about my encounter on the way here. They were very confused, but still, that didn't numb our minds from our mission. Later I asked James about the situation in this harbor.

-This harbor, (James answered) and the ship along, is owned by my family. We are all brothers, cousins, and if not, as close as… You'll meet the crew soon. Some details have to be set before the departure; it will take a couple of weeks. In the meantime, Furia will spend the day here… (He guided us at a huge storage building) she will be able to go out at night to fly and stretch up. Anything else, you just call for it…

_Tell him I'd like some meat right now. A couple of days are what's needed for me to call a hunting night._

I delivered the message and James guided us to the meat locker in the building. We took out a skinned pig.

-I don't know if it's healthy for a dragon to eat meat this cold but… WOW!

James got startled as Furia heated the pig with a short flame then proceeded to eat it.

There was nothing more for James to show us tonight. The guys were staying with some members of James' family. He told me I would stay with him, for he is the one I knew. I wanted to stay with Furia, but she said…

_You do need to sleep comfortable, especially after our trip. We can meet up again tomorrow…_

_I guess I'll listen to you… we didn't sleep more than a couple of hours each night…_

Then we all headed for each of our staying places. When James and I arrived to his home, he introduced me to his wife and kid. After introducing myself, I made a few tricks with Vital Energy, and then we called it for tonight. Before going to the foldable bed I was going to sleep on, I took a shower. That was the best shower I ever took, I think I did an hour there. When finished, I went to sleep.


	17. The Hidden Side of the Warrior

**The Hidden Side of the Warrior**

In the beginning of March everything was ready for the sailing. We got all the meat and more to a meat locker there was in the ship especially for the occasion there'd be a dragon onboard. The high ranked members such as the heads of the ship dealt with bureaucracy and paperwork. Needless to say, some of the papers weren't completely legitimate, such as our destiny and the cargo. Fortunately, they had people inside.

We built some kind of cage; it was made out of a pile of cargo containers with the inner divisions cut out. It would look from the outside like a bunch of perfectly aligned piled up cargo containers, but in the inside, it was a single chamber comfortably big for Furia.

The ship's crew consisted in around two dozen people. But this time would be onboard little more than sixty people. There wasn't just James' family, this spot of Dragon Society involved several families. Non-crew-member elders plus the little kids wouldn't come. Only capable men and women would. Their ages were wide; there were some young and enthusiastic fellas along with middle aged grownups. But despite of the age, they were all intrigued by my whole story. We got to know each other very well during the preparations for the trip.

Along with Furia's cage, we loaded the ship's deck with other empty containers to create the illusion of this being a regular sailing. That faithful morning we were going to sail, everyone, in exception of the crew members, got into the empty containers. Some were filled with food, water and many other supplies for the trip. Furia and I were in her cage.

When we finally felt the engines being started up, our joy could be felt in the air. We were finally on our way to the Bermuda Triangle. For once, we couldn't be stopped. Once far enough from the harbor, a signal was given for everyone to come out. We got rid of some of the empty containers by throwing them over board. Now there was space on the deck for the people and Furia to roam around comfortably.

The ship would arrive to the Bermuda Triangle in around a week, and I didn't waste a single second. When I wasn't training, I was flying with Furia, even during the day; we were really far from anyone who could possibly see us. Even when I was resting or simply hanging around the ship on my own, I got a lot of attention from the people onboard… specially the young females. But I didn't answer to them, nor did I ditch them away; that would be rude. I just rolled on and enjoyed a sudden talk and company.

One day, at late morning, Furia and I finished a training session. We used the remaining empty containers as target to improve the Spear technique from the air. I managed to pierce the metal a couple of times, but then I was awfully tired.

_Let's call it for now… I can barely move… _I said panting.

_You really went far this time…_

_We need to be ready for the Bermuda…_

_And don't forget alive._

We landed on the deck; I unstrapped from the saddle and slowly got to the floor. Furia went to her water source, a huge tub there was. I was lying down in a shadow when she approached and dropped herself on the floor by my side. After a long sigh and fixing an eye on me, she said…

_Can I ask you something?_

That was a weird approach from Furia. I would have expected that question from anyone… anyone but her. I found it so uncanny that I got to a sitting position.

_What is it? _I told her, looking straight to her eye.

_Why don't you answer to any of the ladies? They seem to like you…_

Relief rose in my heart. I threw myself backwards and ended lying on the floor once again.

_Aaaaahhhh… It's just that… I thought it was something important… Mmmm they are out only for the Rider thing._

_Maybe you are right… you are ugly as fuck… _She said with a chuckle.

_What?_

_Seriously… you are strong, brave, and yes, the only Rider… that makes you a great catch…_

_Are you saying I should get a girlfriend?_ I said wanting to get to the bottom of this.

_Not like that, silly… what I mean is there has to be someone you'd like back…_

_I have had two girlfriends so far… both of them leaved me for the same reason._

There was a moment of silence, which Furia broke by asking…

_Would you tell me?_

I looked at her, got our sights connected for a moment, then looked back to the sky.

_I am too dry… too distracted… And their decision didn't affect me afterwards because that is actually true. It meant the same for me to be or not in a relationship… and it still does. Maybe some of them, or even just one of them is out for me not for me being a Rider… but why don't I try to figure which one of them is that one?... because I don't simply decide who to love… And even less… I don't simply decide to love._

_Yet you love ME… _Furia said winking an eye at me.

I chuckled and said… _Yeah I do… and it's because it's different. We are connected… You couldn't even talk and you were my best friend. Just by hanging around with you I knew we had something true… and I still feel it every second of your company. I wouldn't get emotionally involved with someone unless it is someone I'm going to truly love._

I got nearer to her and pet her neck as she hummed softly. With nothing more to clarify and unspoken consent, the conversation ended there. We stood like that for a while… until I felt hungry.

The rest of the week was like that, just another day after the other, but not for my and Furia's abilities; We trained until destroying every last empty container.


	18. Belly of the Beast

**Belly of the Beast**

Inside the Bermuda Triangle, tension could be felt in the air. Everyone at every moment, unless it was a special situation, was indoors. Only Furia and I stood outside on the deck. She saddled up at all times, and I always near her, wearing my flying goggles.

The ship was coursed to the center of the Triangle. According to the Dragon Society, there was an island where the dragon eggs are stacked and guarded by the Government. We had some concern about the number of dragons I'd have to take down. There were, at this very moment, four dragons existing: The Government Elder's Dragon, the actual Government's Head's Dragon, and The Junior's Dragon… The fourth was Furia.

The thing was that we didn't know the actual cycle the Government was going through at this moment: The Junior could be right now a young man, plus his father, the Head, would be in a still strong age; which meant… I would be facing a Dragon and a Dragon Rider, plus his dragon… Or the junior might be just a little kid; everything would fall on the Head's Dragon all alone. Now the Elder's Dragon and him himself might and might not count, he could be all like "my son's dragon will handle this, I'll just watch with my grandson", or he could be "two dragons and a rider are enough, plus I'm too old for that crap", or the worst case scenario: "Fuck my age! I'll ride along!".

One afternoon, the spotters sighted land where we were expecting it to be. The captain got the ship as close as possible to the island. Furia and I were staring at it when James approached me and handed me a radio.

-The captain has ordered that you must scout the island first.

-Is he aware of the risks?

-Let's say kind of...

-So he's out for gambling someone else's life. Tell him I'm going to do it my way then.

-Well… how?

I glared at Furia, made a quick eye contact and looked back to James.

-At nightfall…

_We'll fight on our own backyard…_ She acknowledged.

A few hours later the sun had died, the island became a huge shadow and the piece of ocean between the ship and the island became ground. After a quick warm up, I climbed onto Furia, her tail snaking with energy, her legs flexing up and down alternately with excitement, her neck arched up and her mouth slightly open, exhaling puffs of smoke, as I strapped myself to the saddle.

_This is the day! This is the fucking day! _She said with a tough tone.

_Are we ready for this!?_ I asked…

She fast paced and jumped with a roar.

-Fuck yeah! -I yelled.

She gained altitude and flew fast towards the island, but without urgency, she had to save her best energies for the fight. I was leaning forward, my arms stretched back and hands wide open; mind clean and feeling Furia's senses. Then we saw it…

It rose up from the darkness of the island like a ghost. I felt chills on my back as it straightened toward us. It was getting nearer and nearer every second. When I managed to see its face through Furia's vision, I went to mine and got ready for battle.

_Let's give him Hell!_ She yelled.

I generated a Spear and took aim at the dragon; suddenly it made an evasion maneuver and became a hard to pick target, making me fail my shot. It flew underneath us as Furia tried to reach him with her flames. She made a closed curve and began pursuit. Having seen it relatively close, that white dragon was noticeably bigger than Furia. It made an up loop and was now diving towards us. It exhaled fire at us, but Furia evaded it by diving forward. Once again balanced, the dragon was then pursuing us. I leaned completely backwards and rained daggers at his face. It shrieked all of a sudden and flew downwards shaking its head from one side to another.

_I think I got his eye! This is our chance!_

_Let's finish this!_

Furia looped backwards and got us diving towards the dragon. She powered the dive with wing strokes. The dragon twisted and received Furia's tackling. We were now falling, the two giants trying to rip from the other a piece of meat, be it by claws or jaws.

From Furia's back I couldn't reach the dragon with a sword, but I quickly proceeded to throw him a Spear… from this close it would be devastating. My smoky weapon penetrated the dragon's chest, making it squeal horribly. Furia took advantage of my intervention and bit the animal's neck right under its head, and with a twist of hers, she snapped its neck broken. The battle reached its finale.

Furia opened her wings and slowed our fall. The body continued its travel and met the ocean with a tremendous splash.

-Yeah!

When Furia tried to roar with me, she grunted of pain. I felt it as well, as if it was my own. It made me grunt hardly.

_Shit! Are you hurt?_

_He got me good on the stomach…_

_Can you make it to the ship?_

She grunted again. _I don't think so…_

_We'll have to land on the island…_

She headed to the island, every wing stroke a new nail being hit into her belly. I unstrapped myself on the way; once we landed I would take action wasting no time. When she finally landed on the beach and collapsed to her side, I went down and saw a huge laceration on her belly. As quickly as it was an instinct, I went closer, put my hands on the wound; that made her grunt very hard, I reached for my energy and prepared to release it.

I saw Furia's wound slowly close up and heal as I grew tired. It wasn't a deadly wound, though it left me panting very hard. I let myself collapse to the ground, and then I took the radio.

-The beach is secured! - I dropped the radio to the sand and laughed.

_We did it! We did it! _ We both yelled, but I was doing it outside of my mind as well; I was simply so joyful. I crawled to her and hugged the tip of her nose.

I threw myself backwards and ended up lying on the sand, right in front of her.

_We just did it… I can't believe how it sounds._ I commented.

_Yeah… All this time talking about getting here, and all of a sudden… we are here._

_How do you feel?_

_I'm alright; you are one hell of a doctor…_

_Thanks… It bugs me that we found just one dragon…_

_And I didn't see anything while we landed._

_The other dragons might be at the other end of the island._

_They better keep it that way. As long as they do, they won't bother me… yet… I'll take a nap._

_Rest well. That was badass flying back there._

A few moments later I couldn't feel her conscience; I was all alone. I took the liberty of just wonder off in my mind. Her phrase "_… all of a sudden… we are here_" bounced in my thoughts.

_I can remember everything that had happened, all the time it took us to be ready for this, and now it only takes me a minute to revive it all. After all that we have been through… we are here. We are the first ones in who-knows-how-long to step on this sand. We were the ones required for this to be accomplished, but… since when? When did I become the man for the job? When I found Furia's egg? Or since… earlier? I knew Clyde since long before… No! This wasn't written nor planned nor nothing! I made the decisions! Furia and I did the training! This is our achievement against all odds! But everything takes its place so well…_ I frowned to the sky…_ There is no destiny, nor there are any plans… there are just the ones who give up… and the ones who stand up… as simple as that._


	19. One Shot to Glory

**One Shot to Glory**

Everyone arrived half an hour later on the lifeboats. They brought all the supplies and stuff as well. Both Furia and I greeted them when they reached the beach. They were all applauding and screaming of cheer. I helped getting everything from the lifeboats to the sand. They insisted that I didn't have to help with that. Yet I did anyway. I wasn't a celebrity or someone to be praised… I was just handling my part.

Among the supplies were tents and camping gear, everyone set everything up and organized sentinel teams. I took the luxury of not being part of that, due to the fact that if something happened, I was the only one to call. We chopped off a couple of trees, then the trunks into smaller pieces. We piled a bunch up, the others were left away to keep the fire on for longer time. Then Furia did us all, the honors.

Everyone was gathered up around the big bonfire, having dinner as I was inside of the circle telling how Furia and I took the dragon out. When I finished, they applauded and screamed of cheers again. Furia was eating a pig outside of the circle. I joined the circle among the guys and had dinner as well. Oliver next to me, asked…

-Which dragon do you think that one was?

-It was bigger than Furia, could be the elder's or his son's… the junior's is out there somewhere.

-Just one dragon as main defense?… Isn't that too lucky? Are you sure you didn't see anything else?

-Nothing of nothing…

-It doesn't make sense…

-They are all for sure in the other side of the island… probably they don't even know there's a dragon down.

-There will be tension tonight then… it's getting very cold, will you sleep with Furia?

-Yup.

Eventually, almost everyone but the sentinels got into their tents; the circle got smaller and smaller until there were too few people to round up the bonfire. Remaking the circle leaving the bonfire to a side, the ten or so of us shared experiences related to this. A couple of them had found people who had found their eggs. Unfortunately they got killed or their eggs were confiscated before making any move. I mentioned how Clyde found me and the later events.

-He would have loved to see this… -I said…

-He did more instead, he made this possible. –Said someone.

We discussed many topics before the group eventually dispersed to the tents. It did was getting cold. I didn't sleep on Furia's back; she curled up and I got in between, her tail and head to my side and her body to the other. To finish, she slightly opened her wing, covering me completely. She had to sleep saddled up and I had to keep my boots on… still, this was a beautiful night.

The sentinels woke us up at next morning's first light. Furia and I stood up and stretched our limbs and saw everybody else on the same deeds. I joined them on a light breakfast. Furia wasn't hungry, though she would be later at noon. A cow would keep her well for two, luckily three days. On the other hand, the pigs we had in the ship's meat locker were far smaller; she would have to eat more frequently. It was bothersome to go to the ship and bring a pig one or two times a day, but it was required. Giving her a lot of food would enlarge greatly her digestion time before being able to fly. We had to keep her always lightly fed to always be ready for action.

I was chewing a mouthful of my sandwich when all of a sudden…

_Patrick! Use my vision, quickly!_

I did, and ended up spitting my food to the ground. I got onto Furia, and while I strapped myself up, Furia said…

_Why does he come that slowly? He isn't even trying to be stealthy..._

Then I said out loud…

-There's a Dragon and its Rider coming in slow!

As soon as I finished, someone snapped…

-How are his hands!?

Furia answered the question… _Grabbing each other above his head…_ I relayed the message and that same person spoke.

-That's a friendly approach, he wants to talk.

_I don't trust this guy… _Furia said.

_Nor do I… He wouldn't come peacefully if there wasn't anyone to avenge him if we dared to play dirty on him._

_He better not play dirty on us if he does know what's good for him… _She said hissing lowly and slightly showing her fangs.

Everyone was together in a big crowd behind me and Furia. The strange Rider landed on the beach, around 6 meters away from us. He then crossed his arms behind his back. He said, from on top of his dragon…

-Rider Patrick Darst, your reputation precedes you. That was an impressive display of ability last night. My name is Rider Costanzo Silvestro and this is my dragon Ictio.

His dragon was colored with a yellow, almost golden tone. He was a young man; noticeably older than me, probably on his early thirties. After a quick glance at Furia, and at the memory of the dragon we killed, it ran through my mind an age pattern: Me, aged early twenties, Costanzo, aged early thirties; his dragon wasn't much bigger than Furia...Which meant the dragon we killed was the Government Head's dragon. There were only left this guy, his dragon, his grandfather and its dragon.

What struck me was that he was acknowledging my abilities of killing his father's dragon. This was for sure someone coldhearted, someone to take on seriously, someone in whose company I couldn't get my guard down. Even though I was confident of my capacities, if there was a chance to avoid a future bloodshed, I was determined to give it a shot.

I have not never ever talked with another Rider, nor was I taught how to. Maybe he was actually expecting from me some ignorance, maybe some bad manners to bear, but I couldn't take those chances. I had to act as refined as I could in order to prevent myself from offending him.

-It is a pleasure meeting you, Rider Costanzo Silvestro, and your dragon as well. This is Furia, my dragon.

-We are honored. (He then unstrapped himself from his saddle and jumped down, crossing his arms behind his back again) Now that we are all introduced, I would like us to walk and discuss a proffer I bring.

I unstrapped myself and jumped down; then proceeded to cross my arms behind my back. This gesture surely meant good faith; one wouldn't easily attack in this position, not even with Magic.

I walked slowly towards Costanzo and told Furia… _Follow me closely_. She did and together we found ourselves facing Costanzo and Ictio.

-I'd like to walk with you, but our dragons may accompany us.

-As you please. –He said gesturing with his head to his side, the other direction from my people.

We walked for a minute without a single word being said. I thought it could be an awkward silence, but he looked fairly comfortable. Suddenly he said…

-For centuries, anyone who dared venturing these waters was slain without warning.

After some time, the world has learned to respect, if not, fear these waters… You, your dragon and your people are the only foreigners in very long time to touch this sand.

-It seems to me you have a purpose for allowing us get this close.

-Yes I do, and in it consists my proffer. The ones who actually get to do something for our cause are the Guardians, while my lineage just guides them…

-May I ask a sudden question? -As he nodded, I continued- Furia and I once met one of those Guardians… he stated that we, Riders, are evil. How come you work together?

-The dragons controlled by my family, the Saddlers', and the army (I felt a cold running through my spine to my head as he said that word) under my command are special exceptions, for they are required to successfully protect the eggs. Now, this is why I let you get this close, this is my proffer: I will provide you with the permission for your people to look for their eggs… And eighteen months, more than enough, to train your people in the arts related to dragons.

An idea crossed my mind, but I ignored it, I took it out from all possibilities, it just couldn't be…

-What for, may I ask?

-Shame and Regret would fall on me if I dealt with you and your people the traditional way. Our purposes here will clash the way they should: One single All-in Battle to the Death.

Horror filled my mind as the possibility I rejected was the correct one.

-I thought we could settle this without bloodshed…

-That cannot be, Rider Patrick.

-Yes it does, for we are not enemies.

-You came here for the eggs, did you not?

-Yes we did, but our purpose is not to harm humanity. It is the entire contrary.

-You want to reenter dragons into humanity's life; that is in fact harming humanity.

-No it isn't, dragons are not…

-Stop it there. (He said as he stopped walking and faced me completely. His friendly tone changed to a very threatening one) I came here to make you a proffer, one that I already expressed. So, will you accept, or will you not? The next word you dare to speak will determine how long will your people live afterwards.

I tried to find another approach, but this was an ultimatum, anything else I said would bring his army to massacre us without mercy. After a sigh of defeat I answered…

-I accept…

-This gladdens us greatly. Have this in mind: If just a single one of your people tries to flee, all of you will be accused of disgracing this pact.

-I'll keep it in mind… In how many Riders does your army consist?

-Forty men and women. Yours?

I wouldn't have said our real number in another situation, but I really needed this guy to reconsider a peaceful solution.

-More than sixty people. I trust you are revealing the true number of your army.

-Yes I am, and don't worry for us, this will just make it even more interesting and delightful.

_What kind of monster are we dealing with? _I thought.

-I won't...

-Good, now that we are done, I will head back to my camp. I suggest you get the eggs as soon as possible. After that, crossing the island's center hill will be considered intent of sabotage; that goes to yours and mine people. I will charge the Saddlers to ready your saddles by the time your dragons reach riding age.

He said as he got himself onto his dragon and strapped on.

-How will we get the saddles?

-The Saddlers are at the Eastern side of the island. They are not part of my army, yet, going there before your dragons reach riding age, which is exactly three months old, along with going after you get your saddles, will be punished as well. And one last thing: As we are in the middles of March, the eighteen months will start square with April and will end on next year's September. At the very second the sun is completely out on the first morning of October, we will fight at the center hill's aerial space. No words to be spoken that day. Next time we see each other will be when you and your people pick your new saddles, so… until then, Rider Patrick…

-Until then, Rider Costanzo…

He took off and went away. Furia and I stood there for a moment, just watching Costanzo flying away. I stretched my arms and decided to walk our way back; that way we could give everything a little thought before revealing the news to the others.

_That was unexpected… _stated Furia.

_What I can't understand is why they think dragons are evil…_

_I find it bothersome as well. What could a dragon do so evil that the whole kind deserved to be annihilated and prevented from further existence?_

_That exactly is what the Dragon Society lacks. This is all too elaborated to be the legacy of a mad man. The one who leaded the Great Massacre was nowhere near mad. He had a purpose for all this, _I sighed deeply as a realization stabbed into my mind…_ one that wasn't evil either…_

I felt her deep disgust towards my last phrase.

_How can you possibly think that!? Have you forgotten Clyde died because of them!?_

I faced her; the burst of rage was big enough to take my words out of my mind.

-How dare you! (She sidestepped away from me) I would never forget what Clyde did for me that night! I want nothing else but to avenge him! You more than anyone know it!

She lowered her head and slightly looked away as she said… _I'm sorry…_

I breathed deeply and calmed down… I ran a hand on my face… and felt horrible for yelling at her… I went closer and pat her neck a couple of times.

_It grinds my gears too. I'm sorry… What I mean is this people think they are doing the right thing._

She looked back at me, and with a gradually rising to normal tone, she said…

_But WE are the ones doing the right thing… aren't we?_

_Indeed we are the ones, but they don't know it… this isn't a fight of Good vs. Evil; this is a fight just for who's right._

_That doesn't even make sense… How come we are fighting for the same thing?_

_There's a name for that… It's called Human Condition._

Once we got to the others, I told them what Costanzo told me. A lot were upset to hear we wouldn't leave the island without a fight to the death against another pack of Riders. Still, I followed Costanzo's suggestion; James and the guys organized the group to start the preparations of the supplies for the trip to the insides of the island while Furia and I made a flyover. I decided to stop using the flying googles; Costanzo didn't use any, nor my comrades had any. A dozen situations ran through my mind in which they became a weakness.

We located the eggs and went back to the beach by evening, it was a huge island. Hungry as hell, we had dinner with the group. Someone had brought a pig for Furia from the ship's meat locker. We would then start the journey at the next day's sunrise. Despite the day's events, at least we would sleep comfortable tonight; Furia would sleep unsaddled and I would sleep rid of my damned boots.

At next day's first light, everybody was getting ready for the trip. The supplies were divided and portioned so everyone would carry a part. They were reluctant at first for me and specially Furia to carry stuff, but we insisted until prevailing. Furia's size and strength allowed her to carry a significant part without any problem, making the group's packs lighter and improving the group's overall speed.

It was a long trip across unknown territory, no one would ever guess which supplies were the most important to have at a given moment. So we carried everything.

We first arranged that Furia would first eat the pigs we brought before hunting local fauna. As we were going to raise over sixty dragons, we didn't know yet how to prepare the island for that; we could all starve to death. Yet there was something catchy I remembered… _My father's cattle have improved a lot since the moment we moved Furia to his lands… Someone here must have something to say about this…_ Then I proceeded to tell everyone about it. But, to my surprise, no one knew a thing about it. Good luck was the most popular among the senseless theories everyone had for this.

I was almost calling it a lost cause when one guy came close to me and said "I know what you are talking about…" He told me his ancestors did experiments on the topic. They found strange how no one dealt with any kind of lack, they were intrigued by how the territory was simply ready for the newborn dragons. They discovered that dragons emanate good energy towards the environment; that's why when a dragon was introduced to a new territory; this one slowly became suitable to that dragon. And that applied to a large number of dragons as well.

I asked him why this wasn't general knowledge, and he told me that very few people accepted this theory back then. He and his brother were the only ones in this group who knew about that. They left their hometown to expand their blood chain and met James in Corpus Christy. Telling that theory again today, with more important things to do, such as keeping the important part of those times alive, would be a total waste of time. Until, of course, it would be needed.

A couple of days later, we found the eggs. When Furia and I flew over them, they looked like oddly colored sand, but at this distance, they looked like a lost treasure. There were bright ones that glistened with the midday sun. Some others so dark that could be spotted easily in the distance. Along with those that didn't met the extremes of brightness and darkness, each egg had a unique tone of color.

Everyone dashed into the egg fields to find their eggs. There could be seen some piles in the distance. Furia and I stood back and admired the landscape. Even though there was much still to do, this was sort of a victory. Soon began the screams of "I found it!"

A few days later everyone found their eggs. This proved the efficiency of the Guardians. No one in the group would have found their eggs in another situation. I thought I would see the shinning again. But, to my eyes, everyone just suddenly ran to a random direction and picked the egg up or dug them out from the piles. Then Jack explained it out for me…

-So one just gets to see its own egg's shinning… never another egg's…-I concluded.

-That's right; imagine finding an egg that wasn't yours… if it wasn't because of the shinning, how could anyone tell if they found the correct egg?

In the meantime, while the others were still looking for their eggs, Furia and I explored something we saw while the flyover, it wasn't very far from the eggs. It was a huge dark line; the first thing I thought was that it could be just a burnt down area. But it was too long and perfectly straight to be an accident.

When we landed, I couldn't believe my eyes…

-Pavement? -I said to myself…

To be an airport, it lacked a station… It was just a landing track. _This is how they bring the eggs… but… how do they hide the planes from the satellites?_ Then my jaw dropped as my mind froze.

_What's wrong?_ Furia asked.

_They could have discovered us and our whereabouts so long ago…_

_What do you mean long ago?_ Furia was impressed by my realization.

_There are these things called satellites orbiting the globe…_

_Wow, wow… slow down… Orbiting?_

_Going around the globe continually in outer space watching EVERTHING what happens everywhere in the whole world... And you were in the open countless times... I should have thought about that in the first place. Now that I did not, they should have seen you clearly…_

_Why didn't they?_

_I don't know… Our images, along with everything related to this island, are filtered for the world… that's clear… but why filtering our information to themselves?_

_Maybe they didn't hide it. Remember this guy Costanzo wanted to fight with someone._

_Maybe, but that's his way. The actual head of the Government is his father, why would HE let us get so far? Why would he let us grow so strong? Why not sending us Guardians while we could still be handled? No one would… Well, no one but Costanzo would risk the world's sake for just a good show._

_The Head would, maybe to satisfy the son's whim… _Furia stated.

_I really doubt it… The Head of the Government is sitting behind a desk. He wouldn't risk that much to gain so little, and even so, having to deal with the consequences of a failure afterwards. Costanzo, in the other hand, would gladly risk the world's safety, because in the case of a failure, he would die gloriously in the battle._

_A Win-Win Bet… If he prevails, he would remember that battle for the rest of his life. If he fails, he would simply die gloriously. This leads to the only possibility left…_

_Which is it? _I got really intrigued to what the answer could be.

_Maybe someone else filtered us on purpose… maybe someone did wanted us to get this far… and maybe even further. Maybe there's someone looking out for us._

Our wonders about the topic ended there, we couldn't go any further. We talked about something else and went back to the group to comment them what we discovered. Hoping it to be true… we did need someone looking out for us…


	20. The Other Side

**The Other Side**

The Dragon Society, now with The Bermuda Triangle for a home, expended the next two months preparing for the dragons' birthing. Before the food we brought ran out, we learned how to hunt and to provide ourselves with food. We located the main rivers and also learned how to fish from the sea. When our food ran out, including the pigs in the meat locker, we fed ourselves mainly with fish, fruits and seeds, mostly the last two. Only Furia was allowed to go for the meat, and even she had to control herself pretty tightly.

Then it started… during the last week of May, everyone's eggs hatched. At any time, several times a day, someone broke the natural soundtrack of the island with a shout of joy, claiming their dragon to be born. Many times I thought of approaching and seeing the new hatchling, yet I found it more appropriated to wait until after the first contact.

It was shocking to see someone making the first contact. If I hadn't gone through it, I would have approached and checked the pulse of that person. When I happened to look in the eye of a new dragon owner, they looked at me with the strangest expression. It was like pure joy; the most grateful "Thank You" someone could ever express.

This island in The Bermuda Triangle, among its other strange characteristics, provided home, not only to the only dragons in the world, but to a weird variety of livestock animals as well. One would think there would be other predators besides dragons in an island that hosts bovines, wild boars, goats, sheep; we did saw many chickens as well. Those animals were most certainly brought to these lands. The only unnatural modification this island suffered was the landing track; everything else had the purpose of making this place into a sanctuary for dragons and their riders. This island was a paradise of no worries, responsibilities nor duties. This island was the only thing left from the old times. Times forgotten, thanks to senseless needs that fill humanity's head; it was our duty to bring those times back.

The island had also one other strange flip on things. Back in the continent I was the trainee… here in the Bermuda Triangle, I was the trainer. I totally accepted the responsibility, but I had one concern. It worried me that if I dealt with people I overpowered, my current capabilities would decrease. Thankfully, there was a negative answer to my worries. They told me that no matter how long I spend without even using Vital Energy, it doesn't get affected by time or abandon not even my physical state. It was a huge relieve to know that I would always be as strong as I get to be.

Not that the people here needed any training, I just happened to be the only one with live experience on the matter. If anyone needed a little pointer, I was always glad to answer. I noticed something I was unable to help them about raising their dragons, and was the upcoming battle. It was awkward for some of them to relax and just spend time with their young dragons, knowing they had to train them for battle since the moment they got to be mature enough to understand the story their owners carried.

In the lapse of an instant I knew why it was so easy for Furia and me… Innocence… I didn't have in my mind all that I had now. I was completely innocent and ignorant of what was happening in the true world. So I raised Furia to be my pet, then she became my best friend, then the most important being in my life. Now she was my Sister in Arms. Although the new dragon owners would skip some of these phases, I knew they would develop a good bond anyway.

One day, at the beginnings of June, a huge plane landed on the island. Costanzo and his dragon, Ictio, both came to our camp. After a friendly greeting, he offered me to follow him to the landing track. I accepted. The camping site I and my comrades selected wasn't very far from our destiny. We made it to the landing track in less than half an hour. We got down from our dragons and closed to the plane by its tail, and then Costanzo said…

-Look.

The plane's tailgate began to lower open as people gathered up around it. But the people weren't the only ones around, there were dragons scattered all over the place. When the tailgate was completely open, the people got inside and began to unload the cargo, which, to my surprise, was alive. He noticed the confused expression on my face and said…

-It wouldn't be a surprise if they were unloading eggs, would it?

-Sure wouldn't… more livestock animals?

He chuckled slightly and said…

-Sixty plus dragons are a tough hit to the environment. Even though it can improve; the pace is too slow for such a change.

-We have taken measures to let time do its job.

-I know you have; yet, it wouldn't be fair nor fun to fight a bunch of poorly fed dragons and riders. I want you all to be in your best conditions for the day of our encounter. Hunt as you and your people feel the need to, I will take care of everything else.

-Thanks. Those are great news.

-No need to thank me, in the end, this all goes to my personal gain.

-Still… thanks. I must say… your army was a complete surprise for me when you first mentioned it.

-What did you believe you would find here?

-Just you and your dragon, your grandfather and his dragon, and your father's dragon.

-That information would be correct if you had arrived just a little earlier.

-How much earlier?

-As early as the day you killed Hobbs' City Manager, without mentioning all those guards, using nothing more than Vital Energy. My father saw the tapes from all the security cameras and sent reinforcements, thinking I'm not capable of handling you.

-That can only be determined on the battlefield.

-That is exactly why I made you the offer. One would say "The purest way of making war is by a one-on-one", but what about everyone else? My men wouldn't back off if I got killed and I assume neither would yours if you got killed. That next battle is already won by default by the faction provided with the surviving dragon rider… And it wouldn't even be a battle, that sort of battles are called massacres.

-Luckily none of us is a man of massacres…

_It amazes me how Costanzo makes sense, not to mention all the troubles he's saving us from. _Furia acknowledged.

_Hear ya…_

There was silence then, as we watched how the animals were unloaded, we speaking nothing but a sudden comment. As soon as the animals were freed, the tailgate shut itself close; each person ran to a dragon and flew away. So did Costanzo and I, as the plane was preparing to take off again. We landed on the center hill of the island, we were almost parting to our respective camps, but we walked and talked more.

-Who are the Saddlers? -I asked.

-They are the local population of dragons and riders. They have no name for themselves, so we call them the Saddlers for their skill on making dragon saddles.

-Why weren't their dragons wiped out like the rest of the world?

-Our dragons and riders here on guarding duty needed saddles and company. Two problems solved with a little deal… saddles in exchange of dragons.

Furia and Ictio far behind us, they were making sounds and gestures, like if they were having their own conversation. I decided to ask Costanzo about that.

-How do dragons communicate with other dragons?

-Just like animals do, with sounds and gestures, they _feel _the other dragon's unexpressive emotions, thought's and attitudes. We must settle it for today… until saddle time, Rider Patrick.

-Until then, Rider Costanzo.

He gestured at his dragon and it dashed towards Costanzo. He got up, strapped himself to his saddle and took off; leaving me and Furia alone on the ground. We walked a bit before flying to our camp.

_Damn it, Costanzo! If you would just listen! _I said in my mind, kicking a stone in rage.

_Don't bother yourself with that at this height; the guy's got no remedy…_

_It's not just that… He and I are very alike…_

_Make sure you keep being the stronger one…_

_Don't worry, we won't waste a single second of improving ourselves. About something else, you seemed to have a talk with Costanzo's dragon, what did he say?_

_Ictio is a flatterer. He said it was a shame that we came here just to fight, and that he liked how I killed the other dragon._

I chuckled before saying… _Pretty confident dragon, huh? What do you think about him?_

_I think we shouldn't bet to him being a confident fool, I think he has capacities to be proud of._

_Either case, we are going to give them our best._

I went onto her and strapped to the saddle, then we flew to the camp.

Time passed… The newborn dragon owners spent time with their dragons as they grew up. The people took a fraction of the time to train and build themselves. Furia and I soared through the skies and swam in the sea when I was not training. We reviewed our battle against the dragon many times, trying to find flaws in our performances. Although we fought well, we couldn't help ourselves finding out that we didn't have any armor. If the saddles The Saddlers would make for us were like Costanzo's, then they wouldn't provide of much protection either. Now I had another Vital Energy project to master.

-Come on Furia, just do it!

_Now you dare to lose your head… isn't it too early?_

_There is no age limit to go mad, now just do it!_

We were at the beach; Furia was facing me, seven meters away.

_No, Patrick! This is going too far… I could kill you for fuck's sake!_

_But you won't, Furia… please…_

I looked at her straight in her eyes. She arched her neck up and with a grunt she said…

_Oh damn it… I'll do it, but don't you dare press forward, at the moment you feel the least tiredness, tell me._

_As you order, now bring it on!_

She leaned her neck forward and exhaled fire at me. I threw my arms forward with open palms and reached for my energy. I generated a shield of my size in front of me; it was slightly curved, not to totally absorb impacts, just redirect them somewhere else. The smoky umbrella in front of me made the fire flow by my sides, above me and to the ground. Just a moment later I felt the results of this new technique.

_Cut it, cut it! _I yelled within my thoughts.

Furia cut the flames and dashed at me. I was standing, struggling to keep myself on my feet. Joy made me speak up outside of my mind.

-I did it! I told you I could do it!

_I thought I burned you when you yelled… I'm glad it worked._

_Am I as well… Did you use all of your power?_

_Of course I didn't…_

_Then this will be in our training sessions until you do and I'm able to hold it off._

She snored before saying… _How I want to just get done with all this…_

_As do I, let's go swim… _I said patting her side.

We then hit the water and swam for the rest of the evening.

With time, I mastered the Chain Blade. I could stab deeply into tree trunks ten meters away, whip it with grace to attack several targets in the blink of an eye and use it for long periods of time. But not only down on the ground; after many times hitting Furia's wings with the non-edged version of the weapon, I learned how to wield it in the sky as well.

This year's September was the month everyone was waiting for. Costanzo and I guided the pack of dragons and their riders in a flight to The Saddlers' territory. The Saddlers had a town; it was like traveling to the past. The houses were small and made of wood with smoke coming out of the chimneys. People were friendly and warm. They had forbidden interacting with us more than necessary, but one could still notice the harmony in their hearts.

They taught every one of us how to saddle our dragons with the new saddles. Furia's old saddle had served us well all this time, but the new one was far easier to deal with. Still learning the steps, I could saddle Furia up in less time than with the old saddle. The new saddles were safer, lighter and more comfortable for both dragon and rider. It was a shame we couldn't spend more time with The Saddlers; as soon as we learned well how to manipulate and deal with the new saddles, we had to go to never come back again.

Along with the whole group, Furia and I gave her new saddle a test. We flew fast and did tricks in the air as if there was someone shooting at us with an anti-aircraft gun. The saddle held incredibly well and was by far more stable than the old one. We couldn't wait for the others to learn Vital Energy Usage to then simulate dogfights.

That night we were both extremely exhausted; she for flying as hard as she could and me for using all aerial techniques within my Vital Energy Weaponry. All in order to test the saddle in all situations we could think of at the moment. We had dinner with the others, talking nothing but Dragon Riding. I hadn't felt so much happiness in the air before.

By this time, everyone had stopped using tents to sleep, not even when it was raining we used tents. They were all covered by their dragons' wing while Furia and I still chilled.

Furia was all stretched and laid on the ground. With my hands behind my head, I was laying on the ground by her side, my eyes aligned with hers. Both of us looking at the stars as the nocturnal sounds served as music for our delight. We stayed like that until Furia curled around me and covered me with her wing.

A week passed just for the new Riders to get used to the sky and for their dragons to develop basic strength, required for what would come really soon. Then began the real training… For the next three months, that's what we did. I trained them; as I was the only one with live experience and this was an immeasurably important part of how we would fight against Costanzo and his men, they no longer asked me for just tiny pointers, they asked me to teach them my experience. And again, Furia and I gladly took the responsibility. A couple of times a day, we leaded the pack in what appeared to be an endurance course. They had to keep up our pace and repeat our maneuvers.

I used the same training techniques Clyde used with me. Extreme Flying became their breakfast, lunch and dinner. When the dragons were all worn out, the riders sparred against each other while their dragons watched and rested. I myself sparred as well against a group of them without using my Vital Energy. Already knowing that my abilities would never rust, it was to show them and motivate them to always become stronger and never stop improving themselves.

When December arrived, they and their dragons were in an incredibly better condition. Their dragons became six months old which meant they were ready to use Vital Energy. I wasn't going to use psychological pressure like Clyde and the guys did with me, it wouldn't result, for everyone here knew what was going to happen now. What I did was pressing each one of them really hard, like making them fight several enemies at once and overall, incredibly hard stuff to accomplish. This part of the process was brutal, but still a kinder garden compared with what I was getting ready in my mind.

The training's priority focus switched from aerial skills to magic skills. Most time of the day they trained with magic; flying and crafting new weapons the rest of it. They sparred against each other now using their magical abilities.

We organized big scale events a few times a week; like dividing the group into two teams and then fight until every member of a certain team was unable to fight anymore. Another big scale event was All-against-All battles, where the winner was the last person standing.

Five months later, the same it took me to learn well, they were amazingly skilled, even better than me at that time. We were in the beginnings of May; everyone was quite bruised up from all this time of training. Thirteen months have passed after Costanzo's eighteen months countdown started. Eleven of which we have spent training really hard. I didn't know much about military forces, but I was incredibly sure there doesn't exist a military force able to operate both air and earth the same way we could.

We spent that first week of May as a vacation. It wasn't my idea; I actually didn't think we needed it. But I put myself on everyone's shoes; my training had finished very long ago. I was already doing as I desired all this time, though the guys told me it would be good to share these days off along with everyone.

So I played along, no more training for Furia and me for that week. Now that Furia and I weren't doing anything specific, I couldn't help thinking about WHAT we were doing there. I gave a deep thought to our situation in big scale. But most of all, I thought of my family… and the fact that if I died in the upcoming battle, we would never see each other again. I thought of approaching Costanzo and ask him if I could call my dad with the devise he used to call for more livestock. Then I realized it could be a bad idea, everyone would want to call their family. It would be a complete waste of time and it could bring us issues with Costanzo. I decided to call my family myself from The Vatican right when this all was over.

Along with Furia's, my actual situation in the United States seemed to be another issue as well. With eight dead people in my father's lands and who knows how many security guards in Hobbs' City Hall plus its City Manager itself. And not to forget all the police officers and militaries Furia burnt to ashes outside of the City Hall. We could have the status of terrorists for all this.

Still… Maybe no one knows we are related to those deaths. The Government wouldn't allow the… regular government to get that information. It would raise investigations, scandals of unusual activities going on. People wouldn't feel secure and they would be forced to answer some questions. They would have in their hands what they can't afford to have. They had to protect us in order to protect themselves. Too bad we were on our way to ruin it all; not only for them, but for us as well. If I was going to encourage this world to enter the world of Dragon Riding, then it was our duty to reveal the whole story including my part in it, just as I promised Owen, Wesley and the others.

Once everything was revealed, what would be of the world was out of my reach at the moment. But what would be of Furia and me was crystal clear. We would become the most wanted individuals in the United States, for the murder of Hobbs' City Manager, all of its security guards, countless police officers and militaries from that same city and eight guys in Lubbock. I did not know whether or not the last eight were real cops… I hope they weren't.

We would turn into public enemies to the world, and heroes to the Dragon Society. Maybe with the support of every member of the Dragon Society around the globe, I could be forgiven, but it wasn't likely, nor would I bet to that possibility. Spending the rest of my life here in the Bermuda Triangle wasn't an option; this was the project of my life, my legacy for the universe. This was something good I could do for the world and I wouldn't miss the results for anything.

Decided to reveal it all, and knowing the consequences of that decision, I asked Furia… _What will we do then? _And the answer was the one I was expecting… _We'll figure something out at the right time. We have a present to live._

That week off was oddly pleasant. The things I realized gave me a new perspective about all Furia and I were facing. It didn't take away the fun, of course. It gave this all more importance and meaning. The battle was the next obstacle for us to live out, yes, but it wasn't the last one. All this that we got involved with, this story in which we were now the protagonists wasn't just a story. This was our life… with a new set of challenges we would soon face.

With new strengths, the group resumed training. But now with a new training priority focus. We would combine flying with magic… in other words, aerial combat.

We took the big scale events and upgraded them to the air. We used non-edged weapons in order to prevent severe injuries; we couldn't afford losing a rider trying to heal its dragon from a deadly laceration. That as well is why we didn't took the training into close quarter combat, like when Furia broke the other dragon's neck. We focused in dogfighting skills; agility, maneuvers, quick responses, precision… the whole package.

Getting into a wrestle in midair with another dragon would be the last option to consider and a situation to avoid at all costs. I learned that lesson well from when Furia and I fought the dragon. It didn't matter that we won that encounter, Furia ended up hurt pretty badly anyway. In this battle no one will have the chance to take care of injuries, not when at any moment an enemy rider can pop up from anywhere and put an end to one's days.

For the rest of this month, May, and the last four in Costanzo's countdown, we kept training. We all became hard targets to aim at. We became sharp reflexed with our shields and our dragons with their maneuvers and dogfighting skills. It seemed that the vision trick worked on both sides. One time I was riding Furia long ago, I located the top of my father's lands by reflex right when she found it. Dragons could sense danger with our vision and react to it the same way. We, the Riders, became keen eyed, with precision in our shots and our dragons with their flames.

Each one of us, Rider and Dragon being a single unit, had the dexterity to avoid attacks from at least three enemy riders. Although we were more than Costanzo's army, they still had around two months of experience more than us. We exploited and obtained experience from every situation not only possible, but imaginable as well.

Then arrived the day we were all getting ready for… September the thirtieth. We didn't train that day. It was long and tedious for no one thought of nothing else than the battle. When the sun began to fall, every Rider and Dragon was at the beach, watching the sunset. As a group we were optimistic and confident on our abilities and our bigger number of warriors. But individually, each of us knew this would be the last sunset for any of us.

No one said a single word, but I am sure we all thought of the same. All the meals we had together, how we all got to know each other so closely and each other's dragons as well. We were a family. It was horrible to think we would lose someone after doing all we've done and accomplished together.

The sentinel team was set; they would cycle until dawn. The last sentinel on the round would wake us all at sun's birthing. I was leaning against Furia's side, watching the stars. I couldn't take out of my head the worst result possible for me. So it troubled me that Furia sensed there was something disturbing me.

_What's wrong? _She asked.

_I'm afraid of losing you._

She brought her head closer to me and hummed gravely for a moment, then she said… _Turn legends or turn forgotten…_

I smiled and pet her side while saying… _we'll do it together._

Then I lay on the ground and stretched, Furia curled up around me and slightly opened her wing to cover me._ I love you, Furia…_

_I love you too, Pat…_

Then we fell asleep, putting an end to the day, and giving the next one the opportunity to rise from the darkness.


	21. The Worst Day of a Lifetime

**The Worst Day of a Lifetime**

Everyone was woken up when the first rays of sun appeared in the environment. It was a matter of minutes before the sun was completely out. We all stretched up along with our dragons and saddled them up in silence. I struggled with myself to keep my cool, to remain serene and focused. I thought of nothing more than Furia. The others weren't very talkative either... same waters, maybe?

When the sun was almost out, we were all strapped onto our dragons and ready to take off. Unlike the last time I had to speak to a group of people; this time I was not only prepared… I _had _something to say this time.

_Draw attention to us. _I told Furia.

She thought for a moment, and then, without any kind of warning, exhaled a puff of fire to the sky. As all eyes, reptile and human, pointed at Furia and me. Kind of shouting and with a tough tone, I began my speech.

-This is the day we all have been preparing for! After all this time, this day has finally arrived to us! And it's going to be the WORST day of our lives! History is full of determined worst days for determined people… but this one is ours! We will want to forget this day so much… But instead! We will talk about this day a hundred million times in the future! Because this day is our gift! This is the day we shed blood for what we believe! For our fallen brothers! For freedom! This is the day WE RIDE!

As I finished, Furia roared and took off. So did every dragon and rider along. The epicness of that moment was unbelievable. All the roars rebounded in my heart, and were like an adrenaline injection. The feeling was amazing and indescribable; I felt it in my eyes as the wind got my tears away.

We rose like the night as our shadows on the ground moved forward with us like a plague. Getting closer and closer to the aerial space the battle would occur, Furia identified spots far away.

As the spots quickly turned into dragons and riders, my life flashed through my eyes. From the true day of my birthing to this moment, it was a well lived life. I wouldn't change anything about it, not even the tiniest detail. In peace with myself, and having shared this with Furia; we were then ready to give it all in this day.

The faces of our enemies were then clear for us, as they generated a wide variety of weapons. Having my sight's locked on the rider facing me; I would generate my weapons at the correct time not to give away my weaponry… although, he sure looked intimidating.

The two masses merged together in the blink of an eye.

Act one: The rider in front of me threw at me some kind of trident. Act two: I blocked it as Furia tilted up, gained a bit of altitude and twisted. Act three: The rider was underneath us, but I was still facing him. I threw a short quick rain of daggers and he blocked them as well. Act four: he made a loop and was now behind us while Furia twisted again and stabilized. Act five: I leaned back and blocked the projectiles the rider was throwing at us. Act six: Furia did a back flip and got above the enemy rider with me facing him again. Act seven: I attacked the dragon's head with my Chain Blade and the rider blocked it. Act eight: Right at that moment, before the rider could even react… I whipped back the blade and diagonally chopped half of the rider's head off.

The dragon looked at me… not as an ordinary enemy. It looked at me with pure hate. It fixed its eyes on me and I felt as if it was pointing at me and calling me "murderer". The sensation was horrible; it was just a little moment before the dragon roared one last time, twitched for a moment and just stopped moving. They were both dead and would now fall to the ground.

_We will truly want to forget this day…_ Furia said with a serious tone, not to disrespect the death we have caused.

I wasn't the only one delivering pain and death; I saw dead dragons and riders from both sides falling to the abyss. There were one dragon and rider who were actually alive, but not for long; someone had cut one of the dragon's wings off. I really hoped it wasn't one of my comrades.

After a quick look, I saw Costanzo and Ictio. They were finishing two of my fellow riders and dragons. The first couple, Costanzo killed the rider with a very long sword; chopping a half off by the hip. The second couple, Ictio made the kill striking from above and first killing the rider then to break the dragon's neck before it would die by its own.

_It could have ended differently, Costanzo. But now you will pay for this! _I thought; feeling my blood burning with rage for the death of my friends.

_Let's get this done! _Furia answered with fury.

We flew towards him as I generated a spear and held it in my right hand. Once we were close enough, I engaged.

Act one: I approached by their right side and threw my spear at them, but failed, as he blocked it. Act two: they looped backwards and we continued forward through the space they left. Act three: he made the complete loop on top of us while attacking both me and Furia with a sword, but I blocked and counterattacked with my sword each of his attacks and he blocked mines. Act four: They twisted back and flew up; we looped too and then followed them. Act five: with a good distance between us, they stabilized and flew forward. We stabilized when we were at the same height. Act six: he threw projectiles at us, but I blocked them all. Act six: as I rained daggers at them, they made a curve and were now flying towards us.

This would be our final engagement, no more fooling around nor child's games.

As Costanzo and Ictio got closer, Furia and I waited for the right moment. Act one: Furia pushed herself up but kept her head low and exhaled fire at them as they flew underneath us. At that very moment, I used Furia's vision because I couldn't see from her back, and attacked them with my Chain Blade, but Costanzo managed to shield off both attacks and even the continual blows of my weapon. Act two: They flew up again and we followed them in a straight line up.

Now we were side by side, attacking each other continually with selected weapons. He used a long sword and shield plus sudden throwables, and I used my Chain Blade and shield plus sudden throwables. Then all of a sudden Ictio closed on us as to crash with Furia, but she flew to her downwards and avoided the lunge. Now stabilized, we saw Costanzo and Ictio doing the same, but they kept the height, flying on top of us.

Suddenly they made a left sideward loop, dived straight at us and attacked diagonally by our left side. Ictio exhaled fire at us and I blocked it, then Furia flew down to avoid the tackle. They tilted sideward and followed us side by side in the diving. Now knowing of their tactics on this position, Furia lowered sharply her speed while they continued the dive. We were now chasing them, both of us Costanzo and I throwing blades at each other while blocking the incoming ones.

They suddenly twisted sideward to the left, and at the end of the movement Costanzo threw, with both hands, some kind of spinning sword at us. Too close to avoid it; my reaction was to block it. I generated the shield with both hands as well and got ready for the impact.

I felt the drilling sword impacting my shield as I tried to hold it off… but I wasn't able to. My shield broke after taking the spin from the sword, it continued forward as a solid thrust. The sword wasn't aimed at me… it was aimed at Furia.

The blade stabbed the whole way through Furia's chest. Entered by the first ribs behind her left shoulder and went out around the last ribs of her right side. I felt the whole event, every inch of the injury as I pushed my hands against my own chest and pressed my teeth with a grunt of pain. She continued growling with pain as my mind dissipated mine. Her wings stopped flapping and her muscles began to twitch uncontrollably.

We were now on free fall.

Knowing I could do nothing more about the battle, I concentrated solely on our survival. I punched her back as hard as I could and yelled at her as loudest possible.

-Furia! Wake up! Wake up! Don't give in! You just can't! WAKE UP!

Then her wings moved and got completely open, braking our fall. She glided to the nearest clearing while growling horribly. After a hard landing, she ended up lying on the ground, breathing irregularly and twitching her whole body, clawing at the dirt.

_It hurts!… horribly!... make it stop!_

-Furia, hang on! I'm going to cure you! You just hang on! -I said, getting near the wound on her left side. I put my hands against it and prepared to reach for my energy.

_They are here!_

She motioned with her head, coughing blood and growling. I turned back and there was Costanzo stepping down from Ictio's back. _Fuck! _I could do nothing now; if I cured Furia, then I would be too out of energy to fight him; and Furia wouldn't be capable of engaging them both. Curing her or not curing her, we were both dead. There was only one option for me to take, and it was risky, but at least we had a chance…

I approached her head and knelt by her side. While pressing my forehead against hers, I said…

_I have to finish Costanzo before healing you! I swear I will be back!_

_Rip his limbs from his body!_

I pet her side one last time and walked towards Costanzo, who motioned at Ictio with his hand and said something I didn't hear, and then the dragon flew away. He was around twenty meters from us. As I walked towards him, he said…

-You are a dexter rider, Patrick Darst; but in the end, not as I am. I could let you live, but you would have to give up your dragon. Not only for your sake… for your people's as well.

I stopped at ten meters, generated the Chain Blade and answered…

-Fuck you and your proffers! This ends now!

-As you wish.

Act one: He did a spin and threw at me the drilling sword, but I jumped to my side, did a roll on the ground and dodged it. Knowing Costanzo was a warrior, he wouldn't attack Furia to advantage himself. Act two: I whipped the blade at him continually in any way I knew, as randomly as I could be as I got closer and closer, also throwing a spear as a sudden tactic. He blocked and dodged my attacks, also he threw projectiles at me and I blocked them as well. Act three: I was just five meters away from him and rained daggers at him as fast as I could, without allowing him to perform any attack but to shield himself. Act four: I twisted and threw a spear with both my hands and saw him block the stronger attack. Act five: right after I threw the spear, I fast paced the last meters between us as he attacked me, but I blocked his strikes without slowing down. Act six: at distance cero, I jumped at him. In midair, I generated a sword with the blade aiming downwards, and with my strongest war cry stabbed down with all my strengths.

My sword broke the shield Costanzo generated and sank into his chest. The weight of the hit collapsed him to the ground and I was still holding my sword, feeling his muscles twitching around the blade. With rage in my heart I yelled at him…

-You don't fucking mess with my dragon! You brought this to yourself! Now DIE!

I twisted the blade and made his body twitch harder. When he moved his left hand, I felt something inside of me, down in my right side. He was still holding a sword that went through my body and continued out by my back. Then I felt an acute pain coming from the injury. His sword dissipated and his hand fell to the ground as the last breath leaved his body.

I put my left hand on my wound and generated a staff with my right one. I got away from the body and headed towards Furia. A few moments later I heard some thumps on the ground behind me; I turned and saw Ictio sitting by his rider's side. Then he looked at me and our sights fixed on each other.

-I'm sorry… -I said and resumed my way to Furia, hearing his last roar.

I fast paced the last meters and landed by Furia's side, right in front of the wound. She wasn't twitching nor grunting… just breathing slowly and irregularly.

_I'm here; I am going to heal you now. _ I said raising my hands and reached for my energy.

_You know this will kill yourself, don't you… _Her tone was strong and determined, it made me hesitate.

I wasn't just injured, I used most of my energy to break Costanzo's shield. I pressed my teeth and sighed.

_Probably, yes… _ I said concentrating the energy to my hands…

_Then don't heal me._

A tear slid by my cheek…

_Turn legends or turn forgotten…_

_Patrick… _I felt a new sensation in her mind… she was crying.

_Turn legends or turn forgotten, Furia… _I said interrupting her.

She knew what she meant for me, she knew I wouldn't give her up for nothing in this world.

_We´ll do it together…_

At the second she answered, I pressed my hands on the wound and released my energy. I held the energy flow for a few moments until I began to feel weaker and weaker. I kept going on as I could barely keep the position. My eyes were getting numb and my vision turned blurry. Suddenly I couldn't breathe, I could exhale but my inhalations were weak and little.

Then I felt it… at the moment I didn't feel any energy going out of me, my heart stopped. I collapsed backwards and rolled on the ground, pressing my hands to my chest; I ripped off my shirt trying to stop the pain. There was no air in my lungs for me to scream with. I lasted a few seconds there until I couldn't move anymore. At that moment, it didn't hurt any further. The last thing I did, before it all turned black, was turning my face to Furia and say… _I know no life without you, Furia._

She didn't answer me… I couldn't even feel her anymore. She probably died when my heart stopped pumping. As I kept looking at her until the end, another tear slipped by the side of my head. As my vision turned darker and darker, the last thing I saw was a shadow that covered us at the moment I faded away.

Although I felt pretty patriotic with the Dragon Society's cause, the main reason I did all this was to hang out with Furia without having to hide her… to be free of going where we wanted without fearing for our lives. At least we were free to try, and we enjoyed every second of it. Furia was, and will always be… the best that had happened in my life.


	22. The Risen

**The Risen**

I sensed I was somewhere. Everything was dark and I couldn't feel my body, but I was somewhere. The only thing I was sure was that I was alive, I could feel my thoughts, and with them I tried to contact Furia… but I got nothing. Within moments I got a little more conscious. I could now feel my body, but I was too weak to move any of it. Flashes of the earlier events rained in my mind and I tried to contact Furia once more… same results.

_Furia, come on… answer me. You can't be dead… you just can't; please answer me…_

I began to feel so alone and vulnerable, I felt my eyes getting wet. I concentrated into opening my eyes, if I couldn't contact her, then I would look for her. After many minutes trying to open my eyes, I realized that I had gained the strength to move my fingers and toes. When I opened my eyes, I was disappointed for my vision to be too blurry to identify even where I was. Everything was mashed in a stain of brown colors. At least I knew a detail about where I was: I was indoors. Not much for a discovery, but at least it meant I was in friendly territory, for I felt soft on my back and front and there were no belts nor ropes holding me down; I figured I was lying face up in a bed with a blanket to the height of my neck.

I saw something move by my right side with the edge of my sight. I tried to turn my head that way to see better, but it was too heavy. It troubled me how weak I was to do the tiniest of movements. At least I was in friendly territory…until I began to question this odd friendly territory.

_There's no way I am in the ship… but we didn't have any huts, we all slept by our dragons. All this brown tones mean I'm under wood… The Saddlers! Their houses are made of wood! Are they friendly? I am not tied down or anything… but… what if they are keeping me alive? What if they suffer Costanzo's death? No, that can't be… They would have fought for him, knowing he was outnumbered. I have to find Furia and get out of here… if I could just…_

-Ah, you are awake.

That voice belonged to a fully grown up man and even older, and was completely unknown for me. I tried to say "Stay away from me!" but all that went out of my mouth was a tiny whisper.

The man approached and sat, facing me, on a chair by my right side and said…

-Rider Patrick Darst, you are in a very complex state right now. I am Rider Francesco Silvestro and I will answer almost all of your questions.

_This is Costanzo's grandfather! _I didn't say a thing; I just tried to keep calm and not looking at him with wide frantic eyes. The old man continued…

-I will give you a little more energy, so we can talk. I'm expecting you'll try to generate a weapon and try to defend yourself. But I prefer you don't, because using Vital Energy in your state would mean instant suicide. Blink twice if you perfectly understood what I just said.

He said that deliberately slowly for me to understand. I blinked as I actually understood what the man was telling me.

-Good… Now you'll feel lightly revitalized. You'll be able to move a little more and most important of all: talk comfortably.

The man proceeded to press his left hand against my chest. Suddenly I felt as he said; my breathing was stronger and now it was the injury on my right side what limited my movement. I had nothing on but my pants and a bandage that embraced my whole abdomen. I could now see who I was dealing with. He had no special features on his face, in exception of a big grey beard. He leaned back on the chair and I asked my first question.

-Where is my dragon?

-As I first said, I will answer almost all of your questions.

-What do you mean by that? Just tell me if my dragon is alive at least. Please.

I tried to keep calm and talk with a low tone. It really got into my nerves that the only source of information I had at hand wouldn't speak what I most wanted to know.

-It's too early to speak of that.

A knot formed in my throat for the next words I wanted to say.

-She's… dead… isn't she…

-I won't speak a word about that.

-What does that mean? -I lightly raised my tone.

-It means that I won't tell you whether your dragon is alive or not. At this moment, sorrow would kill you the same as euphoria would. Hope is what keeps you alive right now and I will keep it that way until you are ready for a proper answer.

I sighed with defeat.

-I think I understand… Did you saw how the battle ended?

-Your people won… I counted around forty survivors.

I looked down, thinking… _Twenty faces… more than twenty faces I wouldn't see ever again… forty, adding their dragons._

-It was an even fight in terms of ability. What guaranteed victory were your numbers. –He stated.

-Do the survivors know I'm alive?

-No. And they won't until you can tell them yourself.

There was much I wanted to ask him, so I started with the top tier.

-What truly happened… with the world… Why do you think dragons are evil?

-It's a long story… Tell me first what you know, I'll start from there.

I told him exactly what Clyde told me, without my later realizations and theories.

-To begin with, he wasn't mad. His name was Silvestro… the original Silvestro. Now, as dragons were the origin of the divisions, he thought the best way to deal with that problem was preventing dragons from existence. So it was believed until actuality.

-To be franc… It isn't been long after I realized this might all be happening due to a good intention.

-Listen well to this… (he said with a more serious tone) There are neither heroes nor villains in history… only Risen.

-What do you mean by Risen?

-A Risen is the one who rises from the crowd for what he or she believes, no matter the place, the circumstances… For every event in this world, there is a Risen who will respond.

-You lost me again…

-Think about it this way… When a nation occupies another… why the resistance has a leader? Shouldn't everyone want to be free and to fight for their territory?

-So it's like destiny?... that leader of the resistance is destined to lead and fight back and then everyone follows him?

He chuckled before answering me.

-Not quite… because if it was destiny, then it would be everybody's destiny to fight back; they are all in the same occupied nation, don't they.

Right then I knew how it worked. I arranged the ideas in my mind and expressed my conclusion.

-The Risen is that person perfectly fit for the job… that's why it's the first one, but... What about good and evil? Then that division doesn't exist?

-It does exist, but only to the world's eyes… Who do you think is evil… a politician who donates money to charity only to cover his steals from the country's monetary funds or the street robber, who can't find a job to feed his family?

-I think I get the idea…

-You learn quickly, Rider Patrick… But don't misunderstand me; there ARE evil people and good people out there. That's why you've got to pay attention to which ones are actually good or evil and which ones are just BELIVED good or evil.

-Then what am I? I've killed countless innocent…

He raised his tone like military trainers.

-Shhh… Were you just rampaging without reason all this time?

-No.

-You are sure you are doing the right thing?

-I think…

-I asked you a yes or no question!

He startled me and I answered almost without letting him finish.

-Yes, I've been doing the right thing!

-Then you are a Risen… as simple as that.

-A Risen… Sorry, but… Why are you helping me survive? I killed your grandson.

-You didn't kill Costanzo. That is what he always wanted since he was born, an epic battle. It hurt me to see him training so hard, getting to be so strong… to then waste all his talents behind a desk. That's why I arranged all this without telling him.

It really shocked me to hear that word.

-What do you mean by "arranged"?

-Yes, I had one of the satellite monitors to hack our servers some years ago, making you and your dragon invisible to our satellites. All in exchange of jubilation here with the Saddlers and his dragon egg…

-How did you know I was going to come here?

-Simple math. Remember Silvestro was a Risen, his actions could be probably misunderstood, and they were. We didn't force the world to do anything, we didn't lie nor did we create anything like in your version of the story. We were just standing there, protecting the world as this Dragon Society you mentioned grew in the shadows. The world is as it is due to itself, not to us it forgot about dragons and made them legends and material for novels and movies. I'll go make some dinner for us. We will talk no more, you need to rest.

-How long have I been sleeping?

-Three full days plus today's half. Look outside, it's late evening.

He said while standing from the chair and walking away.

Alone again with my thoughts, I waited for him while hearing all the kitchen instruments being manipulated. It was a new melody to my ears; pots were made of iron and made different sounds from the metal ones. Also the oven worked with wood, not with gas as back home.

He came back carrying a bed table and placed it above my legs. As he leaved it, he opened his hands and held them palms-up in front of me, then said…

-Hold my hands.

_Why not?_

I held his hands, and with a flow movement, he pulled me up to a sitting position. That was surprising as it was painful; I pressed my teeth and grunted as I felt my injury move.

He left me there, panting and helping myself with the table, not to lose balance and fall off the bed. Then he went to the back of the bed, I heard some pieces being pulled and then I felt the bed moving. The confusion and the pain prevented me from asking what the hell was going on.

-You may now lean back. –He said while heading to the kitchen again.

I slowly pushed myself backwards and felt the bed. He up righted half of the bed so I could rest on a sitting position. Straight enough to eat and inclined enough for my body to rest comfortably.

The old man came back from the kitchen with a bowl and a plate, placed the bowl filled with soup on my table and sat on the chair. "Bon appetite" he said before stabbing a piece of meat with a knife and took it to his mouth. We ate in silence until we both finished.

-Thanks… that was delicious. –I said handing over the empty bowl and the spoon.

He took the bowl and his plate to the kitchen, washed his hands and came back. He helped me get to the earlier position: holding myself on the bed table; modified the bed to its original position and helped me lean back.

Once again laid down, I said…

-I'm sorry I killed your son's dragon.

-Don't be, that was hers and my son's decision.

-They knew what you were up to?

-Yes. I told my son about how Costanzo always wished for something to come during his time here, so he could be able to employ his abilities. It wasn't pride; I could sense Costanzo was speaking truth when he said he wouldn't go succeed my son to take the charge. I didn't tell my son the detail of the hacked satellite though. He decided to send men under Costanzo's charge, and worst of all, one of them brought a message to my son's dragon: Don't listen to my father and always attend to your orders. I tried to dissuade Saris, his dragon, from attacking you the day you arrived, so Costanzo could deal with you and your men, but she was as stubborn as my son.

-How do you think this will affect him?

-Don't worry for him. We raise our dragons only to train and to protect the island for when we leave to succeed our fathers in the Vatican. Time is the one who teaches us to miss them. That's why we spend here the rest of our lives.

-Sorry for demanding, Rider Francesco, but you still hadn't told me why you are keeping me alive… You told me why you helped me get here, which makes sense, but… why are you keeping me alive? I mean, you already sufficed Costanzo's dream and you know the Dragon Society's objective, why not stopping us? It's like you switched sides.

-That is the second most important question you have asked me so far… and the answer will have to wait. My bedroom is upstairs, call if you need anything; I'm going to sleep. –He said while getting up from the chair and heading to the stairs to my right.

-I understand… which is the first one?

-Where's your dragon of course…

I felt blankness in my mind, then all the wonders and doubts about Furia's state bombed again. This was what Francesco meant, now I truly wanted for tomorrow to come and get me closer to the answer.

-Good night, Rider Francesco Silvestro.

-Rest well Rider Patrick Darst.

I pulled the blankets back to the height of my neck and tried to sleep. Memories of good times with Furia began to appear in my mind as I held my tears from coming off… _I know you are alive… you have to be alive…_ I had to be strong, I had to keep hope up if I wanted to see her again… in the case she was alive. Eventually, I fell asleep.

I woke up next morning confused and scared to what I was feeling. All my body was numb and my vision was blurry, plus my head was hurting so much I swore it was going to explode. I couldn't talk either; I tried to call Francesco, but got nothing to come out of my mouth than a tiny whisper. I had to wait for him to wake up and then have him do what he did yesterday.

I couldn't think of nothing because of the headache; actually, when I tried to think of something it became stronger. I couldn't even play music in my head; this was like a sick joke. When I tried to keep blankness in my mind, something popped up and enlarged the pain. I don't know how long I was there, but it felt eternal.

Finally the old man woke up and came downstairs. The first thing he saw was my wide open frantic eyes supplicating him for help. He approached, pressed his left hand against my chest and revitalized me. In an instant, the headache was over and everything went to its regular state.

-Mornings, Rider Patrick. It seems you had a rough wake up…

-Mornings, Rider Francesco. My head hurt worse than any hangover I've had… besides the body numbness and blurry vision. What's happening to me? Why do you have to do this… I-don't-know-what thing so I can feel ok?

-There will be time to speak of that. Today I have an activity for you, but let's have breakfast first.

We did the maneuver to straighten the bed, and then he went to the kitchen. This time he brought two plates with food; both served with meat and bread.

-I suggest you chew well the food. Bon appetite…

The meat was the softest I have ever eaten, and the bread had the perfect texture. I hummed with delight and said right after swallowing…

-This is amazing… either you are an amazing cook or dragons' influence on the environment makes food this good.

-Dragons' what? -He asked in confusion, still with his mouth full.

-Oh, you don't know about it… Well, it happens that dragons have influence on the environment; the animals are stronger and healthier, the trees grow faster, bigger and stronger, their fruits as well… long story short, with dragons around, everything has more quality.

-That sounds kind of odd… Costanzo told me something about it. He was talking with someone at the Saddlers' territory and that popped into conversation. It made sense to him, but not for me. Now that you have knowledge of that; you can't all be wrong, I guess.

-Dragons aren't that bad now, are they?

-We didn't know about this "influence"… I guess, if we had, the first Silvestro wouldn't have taken away something so good for the whole planet.

We continued eating our breakfasts in silence after that. He finished first and took his plate to the kitchen, while I had to chew my food more than I was used to. At the moment I finished, I sucked the tip of my fingers before cleaning my hands and mouth with a towel there was under my plate. He took the bed table to the kitchen along with my plate and towel. To my surprise, he came back with a cane.

-Today you'll get off that bed.

How it gladdened me he said that; this meant we were getting somewhere. Sooner or later I would discover Furia's whereabouts.

He gave me the cane and said…

-Once you can walk the entire house, we'll go outside.

I nodded and smiled, thankful for the challenge. I turned to the edge of the bed, getting my legs out; supported myself on the cane with my right hand and slowly pushed myself up. It was hard and painful; I backed off and sat again on the bed.

_Come on, Patrick; you can do this… for Furia._

I tried again, pressing my teeth and holding the pain. This time I succeeded; once I was up right, the injury didn't hurt much. I had a smile from ear to ear and couldn't wait for taking a step.

At first it was hard to walk fluently. With the help of the cane in my right hand and any random furniture I could reach with my left hand to hold on to, I advanced through the house. I circled randomly so the task wouldn't become tedious. Eventually, I could walk holding to the cane with both hands, without need for furniture. I thought of venturing upstairs, but I wasn't ready, how would I hold to the banister? I had to learn to walk with just one hand on the cane before that. Once ready, I headed to the base of the stairs. Due to the situation, they looked pretty intimidating. I held the banister with my left hand and raised my foot onto the step, then placed it. Now came the tricky part; I had to pull myself up to place my other foot on the next step. I took a deep breath and prepared for the move.

I accomplished the objective with a burst of pride. It was one little step for me, but was one step closer to Furia. Suddenly I began to lose balance; I tried to hold to the banister, but my hands were getting numb. _No, no, no! Not this again! _Then I fell backwards. I was waiting for the floor's impact on my back, but I didn't hit it. Francesco broke my fall and held me up, then pressed his left hand on my chest and I was all ok after a moment.

-Follow me, you are ready.

-Already? But I haven't reached the top floor?

He chuckled and said…

-Don't you worry; this was what I was waiting for.

-Huh?

-Put this on… -He said throwing a shirt at me- Let's just go out for a walk. –He said gesturing at the front door.

I put on the shirt and then he opened the door, the light blinded me. I covered my eyes with my left hand and waited for them to adjust. Once ready, I got to admire the landscape before me. It was still early, almost midmorning; the sun was bright and shiny and the birds sang. Far away was the hill; the wooden houses prevented me from seeing its base, and the smoke coming out of the chimneys, inclined due to a soft breeze, blurred its top. Horrible images flashed in my mind as I felt cold in my spine.

Francesco began to walk first; I then walked quickly to reach his side. I cleaned my mind from the images and made room to what was in front of me: The Saddlers' territory. I recognized it from when my comrades and I came for our saddles. The houses were very separated from each other, but Francesco's was the most apart. When we reached the town and began walking between the houses, the people stared at me and the ones close to someone else murmured as I entered their sights. There were dragons around as well; some were just sitting, ignoring people walking by, except me, they followed me with their eyes. Some others followed their riders across the road without noticing me. And there were others in groups with other dragons and the effects of my presence were the same as with people; they followed me with their sights along with making gestures and grunts to their nearby buddies… raising my wonders about the messages that were being transmitted.

I went close to Francesco and said with a low tone…

-This is far from the reception I had when my people and I came before… Should I worry?

-It's because of what you did… there hasn't been one around since long, long time.

-What hasn't been around? What is this all about?

-Something you have become.

The open character of the answers discouraged me from asking anything else. I felt the sensation that this walk would get me to something concrete soon.

As we turned a corner, I dropped the cane and ran. I couldn't hold my tears of joy as I got closer and closer to her. She was lying on the ground and lifted her head a bit, right when I got into her sight. Her chest was all bandaged up, a reminder of the horrors we went through just a few days before, and a base for the incredibility of the scene.

Right at the moment I hugged the tip of her mouth, I felt an electroshock. My mind got blown off because of all the emotions I was feeling. I was happy and amazed for her to be alive. I was confused because I couldn't sense her with my mind and because I was going through the first contact thing again. And a thousand more questions born from that moment, just to form in line and wait; because right after the electroshock, not a single second passed before I lost consciousness.


	23. The Meaning of Self Sacrifice

**The Meaning of Self Sacrifice**

As soon as I felt conscious, I got to a sitting position and saw her in front of me. She hadn't move since I lost consciousness; her head was now resting on the ground. I approached by her side and knelt, placed my forehead against her head, in front of her eye and pet her. I had no words for her at the moment; being there, feeling her mind after so long, her joy, her contact against my head and my hands as a couple of joy tears slid by my cheeks. We said everything we wanted to tell each other with our presence.

After a minute or so, I felt a hand on my shoulder. I looked up and turned my sight to notice it was Francesco.

-She will be able to walk after a week from now. And after that, it will take her a month to fly. Not much later she will be as strong as she was.

I pushed myself up to my feet and told him, looking straight at his eyes.

-Thank you... Francesco… I…

He raised his left hand with the palm towards me. I saw his scar, quite different than mine, and stopped talking.

-Follow me.

I was reluctant; I really didn't want to leave Furia.

_Go… he will tell you things we both need to know._

I turned to her and looked at her eye. I thought of protesting, but she was right. I simply nodded and walked with Francesco. I thought of the cane, but I didn't need it anymore. Neither was it where I dropped it. The injury just reminded me of its presence with a constant weird sensation on the side but it didn't hurt anymore.

We lasted around a minute walking in silence. I noticed the sun had moved a lot and felt my stomach was empty. I spend a couple of hours unconscious and now was early noon.

-You gave your life for your dragon… that is both a reckless and a noble act.

-I wouldn't let her die.

He smiled and said… -That's why I kept you alive.

My face changed to an expression of confusion, to what he answered…

-The answer lies on your scar, Rider Patrick.

I looked to my palm and got even more confused. My original scar was duplicated and the new one was perpendicular to the original, forming a weird "X".

-What does this mean?

-It means your braveness knows no boundaries. It means you will go on until the end for what you care for; be it a fight, an ideal… your dragon. The Double Scar means you have faced Death itself and have the enough will to live without energy.

-But… Living without Vital Energy is impossible.

-It's impossible if the Rider lacks on will. That's why it's impossible to **create** a Double Scar.

-Explain that…

-Let's say a random rider wants a Double Scar, ok? So he calls a buddy to keep him alive, like I did with you, for when he has ran out of energy, to then get more from his dragon and gain a Double Scar. Got the picture?

I nodded with interest, in expectative of where was this going to. He then continued…

-Then this random rider uses all of his Vital Energy, which is actually hard, but in this case the rider reached the point of no return. Then his buddy comes by and tries to fuel him with his own energy. As the purpose of this rider was just an ordinary whim, it will be impossible for his body to use someone else's energy. It takes an incredible strength to survive without one's Vital Energy. Strength which comes from the purpose you gave all your energy for; just like you did with your dragon, Rider Patrick. You **wouldn't **let her die; you gave your life for her and still had the need to see if it worked.

I looked again at my palm, now with solemnity; aware of what was required to earn this new scar. Francesco continued…

-That's why I couldn't tell you about her at first. If I would have told you she was ok, you would have lowered your guard and the strength would be released as there is no more need for it. You would have died for not being worried about her.

-I understand… What if I wouldn't have turned into a Double Scarred… if I would have just defeated Costanzo and continued being a regular rider?

-I would have killed you and your people. –He said looking straight into my eyes.

The answer was hard, but I didn't say a thing. After a pause, he continued…

-Regular riders born and die continually in this town. My lineage has always been composed by regular riders and so it will in the future. I wouldn't let an opposite regular rider to mess with the purpose of my lineage, which is preventing dragons from existing. But, coming from a Double Scarred Rider… It's a whole different story.

He took a deep breath and sighed deeply before saying…

-The world has been guarded by my lineage since long. Now I look at it and I realize this isn't what Silvestro envisioned when doing what he did.

He stopped walking and looked at me. As I faced him, he said, putting his left hand on my shoulder.

-The world needs more people like you, Rider Patrick. You showed me that it needs the times when Double Scarred Riders were acclaimed and respected if not feared. That is why I will not stop your rising, Rider Patrick Darst.

After a moment, he turned and began walking again and I followed him. We took a corner, and then the next one. We were now going back by taking a parallel road.

-Now that all of your doubts have been cleared, why don't you tell me your story?

I thought for a moment, looking for the right words to start with. I started making a quick introduction of who I was before finding Furia's egg; which felt horribly weird. As I traveled in time and remembered that person I used to call "me", I felt like I was talking of someone else. I didn't relate anymore to Patrick Darst the College Student. I found amazing how Patrick Darst the Double Scarred Dragon Rider born from a guy like that.

Later I understood that I have been Patrick Darst the Double Scarred Dragon Rider since the very beginning of my life. I realized that I have always been myself; all this happened to me because I was being myself the whole way. Through this journey, there were always high odds of failure, but I didn't back away nor did I fail. This wasn't my destiny; this was my rising out of the crowd to become the person I truly was.

We reached our starting point near Furia and the story was just half way. We continued back to Francesco's home and, while telling him the story, I helped him with the meal. Right when we were ready to eat, I reached the end of the story.

-… the last thing I saw was a shadow covering us. I guess that was you (I chuckled) and the rest you already know it.

-I'm sorry for what happened to your friend Clyde. It was brave from him to save your life.

-Thanks.

Braking the moment of silence that had born, Francesco snapped…

-I can help you with your situation about the murder of Hobbs' City Manager…

My eyes got wide open in expectative.

-Really?

-As the eldest member of my lineage, I will command those with power among my subordinates to plead for you and the future newborn riders. Also, I'll have the actual Pope, close friend of mine, to reveal the story behind humanity and to declare support for your actions, and to protect you. He will also declare peace with the Dragon Society and our intention to bring dragons back by working together. The Guardians will be stripped of their duties; they will now encourage and help people to find eggs instead. And for the eggs already here, something will be thought… that and anything else you need, Double Scarred Rider.

I looked for the piece of paper Owen gave me, but suddenly Francesco raised his hand holding it and said…

-I was wondering what the purpose was for this.

-That is Owen's number. I would appreciate if you gave them priority to get them here and help them find their eggs. My promise to them would be fulfilled… and also the families of my fellow surviving riders.

-You have my word, Rider Patrick.

As we finished eating, he said…

-Take Tanith, my dragon, and tell your people all what you have learned. You may bring them into town if you wish.

He then stood up from the table and took both plates. As he went into the kitchen I answered…

-Thanks, but I'd rather cure Furi…

-NO! -He screamed and came out of the kitchen in a rush- I knew there was more for me to tell you.

-What's going on? Can't I cure her?

-You have just received fresh energy. It's strong energy, yes, but it's still fresh. At this moment you are, in Vital Energy terms, as strong as you were the day you received your first Vital Energy. It will grow faster this time, but still you have to be patient.

-Can you do me that one last favor?

-I would like to, but a dragon can only deal with its rider's energy. Between people it doesn't matter, though.

-When will I be ready to use Vital Energy again?

-In a couple of months… sadly you'll be restored to just a fraction of your earlier strength.

-And the mental link?

-Give it a couple of days, this one will get to its full earlier state. It's a blessing it is this way and not otherwise. Vital Energy can be trained; but what you have lived by the side of your dragon… that cannot be replaced.

-Got it… -I sighed- I thought for a moment there was something wrong. –I ended with a smile and offered him my right hand for a handshake. -Thanks, I really mean it… for everything.

He shook my hand and said. –Go, Tanith is already saddled and waiting for you near your dragon.

I nodded and headed out. On the way I tried to contact Furia, but got nothing. In other times I would have panicked; now knowing I just had to get closer due to the weakness of our actual link, I was fine. Later I saw Furia and was able to feel her from around twenty meters away. Right at that moment, she said…

_Finally I reach you. There's something wrong with our link…_

_I know, Francesco explained it to me. I will tell you everything, but I have to do something first._

She snored and said… _All right, what are you going to do?_

_I'll go to our camp and bring everyone here; they don't even know we are alive._

_That's very far away, if I was… why haven't you cured me? -_She demanded with a lightly high tone.

_I can't right now, and won't be either in a couple of months. You'll have to recover the traditional way. I'll go with Tanith. _ I said approaching her and petting her side.

_Francesco's dragon? _-I felt a little alteration in her voice.

_Yes… if you are ok with this…_

_It's ok, go…_

_I'll spend each day and night on the ground until you can fly again._

She laughed lightly and said, still with the laugh… _Oh don't be dramatic, just go…_

_All right, see ya later._

_Later, Pat._

I tried to look for the dragon and realized… I have never seen Francesco's dragon. After giving the issue a little thought, I decided to call out for her.

-Tanith!

I yelled… after a few moments I heard a roar and headed towards it. After turning in a corner I saw this huge pale blue dragon lying on the ground, one and a half times Furia's size.

-Tanith? -I said still impressed.

The dragon nodded and gestured at me with the head, ordering me to hop onto her. I climbed to the saddle awkwardly, my injure didn't hurt me on basic movements, but as this required of effort to be accomplished, it made the task pretty hard to succeed.

Finally on the saddle, I strapped up and the dragon stretched and walked to a clearing, where she fast paced and took off.

Her muscles felt awesomely strong, way more than I remember Furia's. _If Francesco's Vital Energy is as strong as his dragon's flying, then he was speaking truth… He would have killed us all if I wouldn't have become a Double Scarred Rider. _Other than that realization I just enjoyed the ride… but still couldn't stop thinking of Furia… it wasn't the same as with her.


	24. Out of the Shadows

**Out of the Shadows**

After half an hour in the air I saw my comrades and their dragons. They wouldn't recognize me this far and this dragon was completely unknown to them, so I located both my hands above my head and grabbed each other making one big fist; just as Costanzo did when he approached us for the first time.

As I landed, I saw the joy being born in their faces. Right when I unstrapped out and jumped to the ground, everybody crowded in front of me and shouted my name on sheers, they asked a lot of questions at the same time and I didn't understood a thing.

-Guys, guys… I will… -As I rose my hands up trying to calm them down, one right in front of me noticed my Double Scar and shouted…

-A Double Scar!

Right then they stopped the sheering, shouting and asking. They began to murmur at each other.

-Yes, is a Double Scar; I will tell everything but…

-Where's Furia!? -Shouted someone all of a sudden. I answered the question right away to avoid any worries.

-She is ok. Now saddle up and get ready to ride. We have to go to the Saddlers, hurry!

I didn't want to use my tough tone, but it's the one they respond to though. When we were all ready, we rode back to the town. Back to where Furia was I shared everything I had learned since the day of the battle. I saved for Furia and I the details regarding to us and our Vital Energy.

They told me about how they simply couldn't find me when the battle finished. They buried our fallen comrades, Jack and Thomas among them, and didn't know what to do next. It was when they asked the Saddlers that they got a lead, but it was conditioned. The Saddlers told them that there was a rider being treated, but they were not allowed to go any further into their territory, they had to wait for the right moment.

After a while, Francesco came by and met everyone. He was making the calls to get Owen's group here, arranging everything regarding to the new course the world would take. The changes would take effect on a couple of months. Which was good, Furia would be all fine by that time and we could then get the ship ready to go back to Texas with Victory on our shoulders.

They always treated me with respect. It was really hard for me to keep my humility and don't let the status of "The Only Rider" get into my head. Time turned us equal in the end; and now that I had this new status of "Double Scarred Rider"… I couldn't help being bothered by the new admiration they had towards me. I decided to embrace the title and go on. I wasn't going to brag about it, but neither could I deny I was well deserved of it.

A week passed and, as Francesco said, Furia began to take her first steps. At first she couldn't walk further than twenty meters before her chest hurt again. But she never gave up; at the moment she was well rest up, she stood up and walked again, a little further if possible. I was always there, supporting her and sheering her up; and all of our friends as well.

One day we saw a plane approaching the island. It was surprising at first, but then I recalled Owen's group and our families were the first in line to come here. My comrades readied their dragons to receive them as I stayed with Furia.

_Aren't you going to receive them?_

_I would have to ride another dragon…_

_I swear it doesn't bother me silly! Now go, they will be gladder to see you first._

I nodded and looked for Francesco to borrow him Tanith. He allowed me to ride his dragon and told me where his saddle was. I headed where the shed was and found the saddle. As I brought it out and saddled Tanith up, I wondered where Furia's saddle was. Before taking off I asked him about the issue and he answered…

-You don't need a saddle stained with blood; you have got yourself plenty of reminders of that day: the scar on your side, your dragon's scars, The Double Scar on your palm; a new saddle will be made for you, now go.

I thanked for everything and took off. The others were flying without hurry, so it was easy for Tanith to catch up. We arrived to the landing track just in time to see the doors open. A group of people stepped out of the plane, disoriented and lost. I recognized Owen, Wesley and the others as I unstrapped off and approached to greet them.

As Owen and I connected in a crossed handshake I said…

-Glad you guys made it! You don't know how lucky you are!

-Am I too! Where's… your dragon… -He said looking for the word in his mind.

-Furia; she's ok. I'll tell you everything once you are all settled up.

-Patrick?

The voice was familiar and made chills run through my spine.

-Dad? -I said looking in the group. Then, stepping forward was my father.

-Dad! -I hugged him in the moment he got in front of the group.

He was followed by Elvis. I saluted him with a crossed handshake and combined it with a hug with our free hands. As I finished the greeting, I said…

-I can't believe you guys are here!

-I'm just glad you are ok son. –He said holding my shoulder with his hand.

-It's been a long time; I have so much to tell you!

Then Elvis snapped all of a sudden…

-Indeed you have little brother! Killing eight people in father's lands, then a politician? Becoming the most wanted person in whole Texas? To then end being protected by a lot other politicians and even the Pope itself!

-I'll tell everything, I swear, let's first…

-Where's Furia? -Interrupted my father.

-She's ok. I'll tell you the whole thing, now come.

There were six people in total: Owen's group, my father and my brother. Each of them was carrying a single bag for their stuff. As the saddles were made for a single rider, six of us had to lend our dragons to take the newbies into town. As I was the responsible for this, I was the first one to offer a dragon. But the whole idea was thrown away when Owen said…

-Wouldn't that be like spoiling the experience of the first flight? How far is the town?

-Twenty minutes on dragon back, a couple of days on foot.

-I assume there is no time limit for our stay…

Owen's group supported the statement, yet my father and brother were expecting for my command, as I was the experienced one here.

-Alright, the quicker we start, the earlier we'll arrive.

I gestured to Tanith and said…

-Tanith, go back to Francesco; we are going on foot.

The dragon nodded and took off, followed by the group of riders, in exception of Alan and Oliver. Their dragons would provide us of food and fire to cook it.

On the way I told them the whole story and how I influenced the new course the world would take. Owen told me of how anxious he was since the day we met, after a year he thought I had failed and forgot about it. Suddenly his phone rang and he answered to an unknown person who mentioned me, what I had promised him and a place and time to be at. Euphoric, he gathered the group and went to the place at the given time. Some individuals picked them up and took them to the plane. There they met my family and during all the flight, they didn't spoke of anything else other than dragon riding.

In my father and Elvis' side of the events, they were pretty confused and worried when they were summoned in my name by a total stranger. My father didn't fell for it at first, but when the stranger mentioned Furia, he knew this truly was related to me. They packed basic stuff and were taken to a plane where they met this four guys who happened to know me as well. My father and Elvis spoke about their roles during Furia's raising and how I suddenly disappeared. Owen and his group answered some of the questions my family had with the information I gave them when I was traveling to Corpus Christy.

Wesley was like a new person after I cleared him everything was a misunderstood.

-At least I never lived for a lie, but for words of truth; mistaken, but at least they were told with truth. –he said with comfort.

When we arrived to the town, the first thing I did was taking them to Furia. Father and Elvis saw her grow, Father much more than Elvis, but it didn't mattered. Right when she saw them, she stood up and greeted them. I felt her joy in my mind; they were there during the first month of her life, in a place that was her home. Seeing them again was the closest to be back in home… I felt the very same thing in my mind.

Through me, she asked how Mr. Flynn and the lands were.

-Mr. Flynn is doing fine. -said dad- But the lands miss your touch.

After a little talk, catching up on stuff, we had the group settled up: Owen's group stayed in the town hospital, a big wood building provided with medical supplies which always had empty rooms. Physical traumas could be dealt with Vital Energy, while sicknesses were very rare to see, because Vital Energy strengthens the body. And I and my family stayed with Francesco.

After telling me that the other families would come on later flights to get their eggs; Francesco and my father talked about me for some time. Father told him how I connected with Furia since the beginning and how she had changed me completely. And Francesco told my father about the person I was then, the achievements I had and the titles I carried, such as the Double Scar. In the mean while I told Elvis about the battles, the trainings and the experiences I went through.

At morning we roamed the egg fields until they all found their eggs. We stayed in the Bermuda Triangle for a month until Furia could fly again. It would take a couple more of weeks after that for me to ride her, but at least she was ready to travel. Within that time we celebrated the peace between the causes with one gigantic dinner followed by dancing and singing with the Saddlers' local music.

Most of the ship's crew survived; we would go the same way we arrived. The ship was readied with supplies for the trip. That morning of our departure the whole town of the Saddlers was at the town outskirts biding us farewell and wishing us a good trip. I looked for Francesco specifically and shook his hand one last time while thanking him and Tanith again for everything as we bid farewell to each other. Then we rode back to the ship; Owen's group was scattered, each of them hugging the back of another rider; the same as my father, Elvis and me because Furia couldn't be ridden yet. Owen had to give in this time and ride with someone else because this time no one would wait a second more… Those who first arrived here… we just wanted to go home.

That evening of our departure I was on the deck watching the sunset when Furia landed and laid by my side. I moved and leaned against her; we stood there in silence watching the dying sun, hiding behind the island. After a few moments she said…

_It feels weird…_

_What?_

_Going the opposite way… going home… what are we going to do now?_

_The world is now safe for Dragon Riders. We can roam, travel…who knows, we might even get a job together or something._

_A job… seriously?_

I laughed and pat her side. _I'm kidding! I don't know… our lives don't end with this, that's for sure. Something will pop up._

_Maybe you are right. Let's arrive home and then we can find what to do._

_But after some well-deserved vacations; _I said with my pointer finger to the sky.

She chuckled before saying… _Call it a plan._

_**The End?**_


End file.
